Collectors of People

One character that struck me hard in the J.K. Rowling's wonderful Harry Potter series was introduced in the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  He is Professor Horace Slughorn of Slytherin House, brought out of retirement by Headmaster Dumbledore to shed light on archvillain Voldemort's early strategies when he was Slughorn's pupil at Hogwarts Academy many years before.  To this end Dumbledore asks Harry, a celebrity renowned throughout the magical world, to allow Slughorn to "collect" him...after explaining to him exactly what he means by "collect".  I'll try to do the same here, but maybe you already know what it means if you've read the book or saw the movie adaptation. This character made a big impression on me since he reminded me greatly of some of my old high school teachers.  First of all, you need to understand that where (and when) I went to high school they deliberately kept teachers more distant from the students, instead constructing the curricula around what they called Learning Activity Packages (or LAPs) which were pages stapled together and handed out to students.  The (erroneous) presumption here was that we students were all miniature, mature, and motivated adults who could be counted on to diligently and responsibly go through our LAPs on our own...and if we needed a "teacher" to help us on something they would theoretically be around to assist us.  Although not all of the courses were conducted this way, it did relieve the faculty of the burden of preparing individual lessons for each day in front of the class...and therefore made it more likely that many students who weren't doing too well would slip through the cracks.  I see all these pro-teacher union ads on TV and the teachers are always so personally engaged with each of their students...I wonder how many teachers I had over the course of my elementary and high school years who even were aware of me as one of their students, much less interested in my progress (or lack thereof).  But if one of us were to excel and become lauded for some accomplishment, such as acting, singing, playing a musical instrument, sports, or in a more academic area like debate or mathematics, then all of a sudden you'd see certain teachers rushing to the forefront to be identified with them.  Never mind that in some of these cases the students' accomplishments and skills were directly attributable to private classes away from the classroom or because of their own parents' occupations and tutelage.  And yes, a lot of the students' achievements were from their own hard efforts...but not necessarily that of their teachers...

In adulthood there are a couple more manifestations of this "collectors of people" phenomenon I'd like to discuss.  There are those who are seriously into name-dropping, apparently because they either think they need to insert their encounters with famous people into their conversations in order to be interesting or because they're of the false notion that they're important enough to be famous themselves.  Along with this are those compelled to stop celebrities on the street or in restaurants for selfies or autographs...I remember that one of the things John and Yoko Lennon liked about living in New York was that the locals respected their privacy in spite of their celebrityhood: it took a scumbag from Hawaii one Monday evening in December, 1980 to ruin all that, though.  Another "adult" element of people collection is the notion of networking, implicit in which is the belief that if one develops a tangle of connections around them then some bigshot corporate, academic or government leader will one day be more disposed to hiring them for a big bonanza job...the site LinkedIn is for those "collectors". And of course people collection figures heavily into social media like Facebook and Twitter and the number of friends, followers and likes and viewings...

I know we're all in community with one another and that's a good thing...even though my tendency is to shed people, not collect them.  But the idea that one is so insecure that they need to buttress their own lives with human trophies repels me, and I've seen it firsthand without the need to observe it in a make-believe Harry Potter character...  

Weekly Short Stories: More 1964 Science Fiction, Part 1

Recently, each Wednesday on this blog from September 30th through October 28th, I examined the "year's best" in short science fiction from the vantage point of editors Robert Silverberg and Martin Greenberg in their 2001 anthology Robert Silverberg Presents the Great SF Stories: 1964. However, there was already another "year's best" anthology series that had begun with coverage of short science fiction, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr and which I'll be using while covering the years through 1989.  It came out in 1965 with its own selection of 64's top tales...all but three differed from Silverberg and Greenberg's picks 36 years later.  The Silverberg book promised to continue its year-by-year series but the first anthology turned out to be the final one.  So we're now left with two fine sci-fi short story anthologies for the year 1964: the following are my reactions to the first five stories included in the Wollheim anthology but missing from Silverberg's...

GREENPLACE by Tom Purdon

It's some time into the future and politics is as corrupt as ever...only with virtual immortality having been achieved, those in power tend to stay there endlessly.  With mind control methods perfected to manipulate the population, a "survey" taker for an opposition candidate enters a hostile suberban neighborhood to size up the people's attitudes.  Maybe from Silverberg's 2001 perspective this story didn't qualify for his anthology, but an editor from 2020 would surely see the application to today's crazy world of political spin in both social and broadcast media...

MEN OF GOOD WILL by Ben Bova and Myron R. Lewis

This very brief tale extends the rivalry between Russia and the U.S. to the moon's surface, where the two opposing camps have their stations built within eyesight of one another.  A visiting UN ambassador is marveling to the American base commander about how only on the moon is there peace between the two sides...and suddenly everyone has to duck as the bullets suddenly starting flying in.  The explanation is brilliant and unexpected...

BILL FOR DELIVERY by Christopher Anvil

It's a rough business out in open space as an interstellar shipper has his hands full of difficult assignments from his overly demanding, hypercritical boss.  This very funny story has the crew forced to transport 50 huge, cantankerous and dangerous birdlike creatures across vast space, with ridiculous instructions on handling them...

A NICHE IN TIME by William F. Temple

It is some time off into the future and backward time travel is feasible...not a good sign for a sci-fi story's premise, may I say.  Everard is from that future, a Visitor whose job involves going back in time to pivotal moments in different famous figures' lives...like Van Gogh, Shakespeare, and Bizet...and influence them just enough to get them over their troubles on their respective roads to greatness.  The contradictions implicit in this notion bring out the whole ludicrousness of the author's proposition...ultimately, Everard finds himself in need of a Visitor to assuage his own discouragement...what he chooses to do with it affirms my own stance against such tampering with time...

SEA WRACK by Edward Jesby

In the future a new amphibious subspecies of humanity has been developed...and, naturally, due to economic conflicts between those on land on those in the sea, a spirit of prejudice and animosity has arisen between the two groups.  When one of the sea people finds himself washed ashore and a decadent rich young woman plays him off against her land-bound boyfriend, the conflict becomes angry and physical...and the surrounding people sound off against the "intruder".  Another sci-fi tale about how humans could be physically altered to live underwater, as well as a sobering exposition of the inevitability of hostility whenever two groups with conflicting interests encounter one another...

Next week: more reviews of 1964 science fiction stories from Wollheim and Carr's anthology...

Zombies Among Us

I've never been a fan of zombie flicks...neither the movie Night of the Living Dead from 1968 nor the recent Walking Dead television series and its spinoffs.  The genre, which features reanimated, soulless corpses that infect others they encounter until hordes threaten humanity's very existence, never captured my imagination...until just recently, that is, when it occurred to me that in a figurative sense there are zombies among us in this real world.  These are people, "dead from the neck up" as the saying goes, who have voluntarily surrendered their own souls to unquestioningly idolize one mortal, flawed figure...namely Donald Trump...and to believe everything he says and follow his commands without reservation.  You cannot reason with these people any more than the human heroes of those zombie shows could with their counterparts...they are self-brainwashed personality cult followers on the same order as that freakish Heaven's Gate group in the nineties that committed collective suicide over the Hale-Bopp comet and the leftist People's Temple under the murderous Jim Jones in the seventies who forced his own people to commit mass "suicide" in Guyana.  In 2021 those in this version of the phenomenon are sustained and energized by the Internet and TV networks that deliberately seek to inflame their passions on behalf of their "lord master". Since Trump is a national political leader, the comparisons to fascist strongmen with cult followers such as Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler also come to mind.  The upshot is that even when our problematic president is finally out of office, he's still going to be out there and those tens of millions of Americans are going to still be slavishly following him as their idol, lord and source of "truth"...to this I add a major disclaimer that I don't believe that all who voted for Trump are like this...but sadly a large portion are, and keep in mind that on the day after the January 6th insurrection, a public opinion poll revealed that 45% of Republicans supported it.  When Trump finally does disappear from the scene (he is getting along in years, after all), the zombies will find another idol to latch themselves onto...someone who undoubtedly will use our very soon-to-be former president's demeanor and behavior as a template to build their own personality cult.  And these folks are everywhere, like the Matrix: in your workplace, when you're shopping, at your churches, on the roads, among the police and military, among your political representatives, and in your neighborhoods and schools.  Zombies.  Among us.

Festivus and the Airing of Grievances

An old Nova High alumnus living out on the west coast posted something on Facebook last month about Festivus, an alternative Christmas holiday season celebration held on December 23rd, created by writer Daniel O'Keefe and spotlighted on the Seinfeld episode The Strike.  It's secular in nature, although one aspect is to point out "miracles" that are clearly not miracles...much of Festivus is tongue-in-cheek fun, not meant to put down the spiritual side of Christmas but rather its runaway materialism and consumerism of today's world.  One of the rituals in Festivus is the dinner during which each person at the table airs their grievances...at the others or anything else, I suppose, that comes to mind.  Although I think it is generally ill-advised to put down another to their face...and even worse to do so in a public setting...I kind of like this concept: just do it some other time besides Christmas, please.  So in latching on to this "airing of grievances" about Festivus, I've transferred it all to the month of January...and I've been careful to avoid singling out people by name (unless they're public figures like celebrities or politicians).  But yeah, in case you haven't noticed I've been griping of late on this blog about various things in the news and in society in general...and I'm not finished: this just might spill over into the next month.  No, I haven't gone completely cynical, but with all this crap going on in the world around me can you blame me if I indulge in it for a little while?

Great Old TV Episodes...from The Honeymooners

YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN from The Honeymooners, originally aired in March, 1956

My mother was approaching three months of pregnancy with me when this episode was first shown...not that this has much to do with anything other than that I first saw it many years later as a syndicated rerun.  Ralph and Alice Kramden, played by Jackie Gleason and Audrey Meadows, live frugally in their bare New York City apartment with their upstairs neighbors Ed and Trixie Norton, played by Art Carney and Joyce Randolph, representing the rest of the show's regular cast. Ralph is a city bus driver and in this particular episode (warning: this article contains a plot spoiler) has gone on a self-improvement kick as he has his eyes set on an open civil service vacancy...but first he has to score high on the written exam and needs to study for it.  Ralph's push to get this better paying job has expanded to him bettering his life on a number of fronts...his assiduous goals and record-keeping even impress usually skeptical Alice, and that's something to behold.  In the end he doesn't pass the test and doesn't get the new job...but although he feels a failure and that everything he's done was for nothing, his wife consolingly tells him his changes have transformed him into a new Ralph Kramden...and the old one had better not show his face again.  As for the episode's title, Ralph has an old trumpet on which he has practiced for years but was never able to hit the "high" note...after Alice sweetly encourages him at the end, he picks up the horn for one more try. I always valued this episode among the brief Honeymooners "Classic" series...there were many more episodes and skits over the years about the Kramdens and Nortons.  Usually they featured Ralph with his pride and foolishness, but this one showed me that by pursuing worthwhile goals and disciplining myself to achieve them, I can transform my whole life in the process...and often if not usually it's the change in lifestyle and attitude that endures far beyond the immediate objective...

Constellation of the Month: Orion (the Hunter)

 

For January the obvious choice for constellation of the month is Orion, easily the most spectacular constellation in the night sky.  Its most visible structure is a rough rectangle with the bright stars Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Rigel, and Saiph at the corners...with the center marked by the Belt: the three stars Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak.  Orion can be found high in the southern evening sky, crossing the meridian this month around 9:00.  South of the belt are a number of deep space objects, chief of them the Great Orion Nebula, designated as M42 and M43 from the Messier catalogue.  As a kid I was taught that if you aim Orion's belt to the right (WNW) it roughly points toward Aldebaran, the brightest star in the zodiac constellation Taurus...aim to the left (ESE) and you find Sirius, the brightest star of the night sky, from the constellation Canis Minor.  Sooner or later I'm going to get my new telescope assembled and I'm looking forward to examining Orion through it, especially that area with all the nebulae.  The Greek letters you see on my above drawing are typically assigned to a constellation's stars, usually...but not always...in general order of brightness: for Orion Rigel, the brightest star, a blue supergiant, is "beta" while Betelgeuse, a red supergiant...though designated "alpha" is slightly dimmer.  Both are more than 600 lightyears distant.  The three Belt stars, all massive, are even farther away...

I've narrowed down my choice for February's constellation of the month to two prominent candidates: can you guess which ones they are...and what would your selection be?

Quote of the Week...from Martin Luther King, Jr.

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry.  He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, "here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well."

                                                                        ---Martin Luther King, Jr.

There are two important components to this wise quote from our great late civil rights leader whose birthday is marked by a national holiday this coming Monday.  One speaks to those in society who might think of themselves as "better" than others engaged in what they perceive as lower-rung jobs in their social hierarchy...the other speaks to that "street sweeper", emphasizing not only that their job is significant in the eyes of God, but that they should tackle it with the same conscientiousness that they would with an endeavor human society holds in greater esteem.  One of the problems I have experienced when getting to know others in adult society is the tendency for my newly-found acquaintances to puff themselves up extolling what important jobs and positions they have...in contrast, my revelation of being a postal clerk usually sounds more like that street sweeper.  I've even experienced, when conversing with colleagues at work, others doing the same self-aggrandizing...this time about their pasts since their present life tends to be on my "level".  Since I'm not into this one-upmanship that seems to be such an indispensable part of most people's social behavior, I tend to disengage, content with my own life. In my work life I've taken each assignment seriously and tried to perform it to the best of my abilities, and you should with your career, too.  Then, I suppose if you want to get arrogant with me about the relative significance of your title, experiences or background, go ahead...doesn't mean I have to hang around to hear it...

Just Finished Reading Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin

 In 2018, while the reading world was eagerly expecting George R.R. Martin, acclaimed author of the fantasy A Song of Ice and Fire series...adapted to the HBO series Game of Thrones with seven years having elapsed since the last published book...to finally come out with volume number six, he surprised us with Fire and Blood, prequel novel to his ongoing series.  At the time I was miffed, thinking that the author could have better spent his writing time getting on with the next series book, The Winds of Winter...well, it's 2021 and I'm still waiting for that one...and after just reading Fire and Blood, I'm still miffed...

Once, after having read J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy masterpieces The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, I picked up a copy of his prequel The Silmarillion and was gravely disappointed, it being a rather dry chronicle of the history of Middle Earth with an overload of characters, geography and events.  But that's typically what a chronicle is, and Martin's Fire and Blood reads similarly, foregoing the very interesting personal perspectives of his compelling characters presented in the regular series and instead laying out in dry form the history of the Targaryen conquest and reign over the continent of Westeros.  In it you see the same old alliances and betrayals between the various noble houses of the land, and in the first half of their 300-year rule, with the indispensable aid of their dragons, a whole lot of cataclysmic war and brutal slaughter being played out with vast numbers of innocent people victimized, culminating in the "Dying of the Dragons" war between two rival Targaryen factions...who cares who won it.  This chronicle is only the first of two parts, the final one to be published God knows when.  HBO is going to have a series on Fire and Blood...let's see if they don't do like Game of Thrones and get far ahead of the actual author.  If you're a major fan of Martin's fantasy world and it's "history", then this book's for you...although lamentably it reads nothing like the five books published so far in A Song of Ice and Fire.  Still waiting on Book #6, George...George, are you there, George? Now where did that rascal go...

Weekly Short Stories: 1967 Science Fiction, Part 4

And here we come to my final article reviewing science fiction short stories from 1967 as they appeared in the anthology World's Best Science Fiction 1968, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr and examining their selections published the preceding year.  For me, 1967 has to be one of the more interesting years in my recollection of my own life as I experienced it...part of this is probably due to me being ten going on eleven, and part of it pertains to some of the weird stuff going down back then around me...

THUS WE FRUSTRATE CHARLEMAGNE by R.A. Lafferty

Here is another of those (groan) time travel tales where the protagonists keep going back in time to change their own present time.  These experimenters perform the deed, than notice that nothing has changed...but from the reader's perspective everything's different.  They keep repeating the experiment and the outcomes get stranger and more comical while the principals are unaware of any anomalies...I'm glad this story was short or I would have fallen asleep reading it. I read another, earlier story along the same lines and think that Lafferty may have inadvertently ripped it off...

HANDICAP by Larry Niven

This, the most intriguing story of today's four, is set on a remote planet called Down as a maker of specially-designed hand prosthetics for "handicapped" intelligent species (like dolphins) seeks out a special sessile (immobile) creature in the desert.  Called a Grog, it doesn't stir from its spot and on the surface seems unintelligent with withered, vestigial arms ...but our protagonist senses something out of kilter with it and connects it to an older aggressive life form, thought to be extinct and which enslaved vast sections of the galaxy.  The ending is a classic presentation of a dilemma, with the reasoning contained within even suspect...

FULL SUN by Brian W. Aldiss

Way off in the distant future...or is it...man and machine are working together to end the scourge of werewolves around them.  Out in the wilderness of central Europe, Balank tracks down a renegade werewolf with the aid of his computer/machine partner called a "trundler".  He encounters a local resident who questions the harm of this growing offshoot of humanity, and the two examine the news on their wrist-TVs...looks like the machines are engaged in pretty heavy time travel and the ones dominating the world right now are from the distant future.  Eventually Balank begins to put it all together, but it is left to that renegade werewolf to lay it all out for us.  The ultimate question is: who is the real enemy?

IT'S SMART TO HAVE AN ENGLISH ADDRESS by D.G. Compton

In this futuristic story, an elderly concert pianist visits his old associate, a composer...at the latter's English home, naturally.  The composer has availed himself of the latest medical breakthroughs for longevity and rejuvenation, as well as a new technique whereby he can have his own mental activity recorded and sold as "art".  The pianist, having already made his peace with his own aging, lessening capabilities and eventual death, strongly resists his friend's attempts to coax him into joining in fighting the ravages of time.  I had mixed feelings about this story, being 64 myself.  If possible, I'd like to "live long and prosper" as the Vulcans might say and wouldn't oppose medical advances to that intent, but sometimes this new digital technology of ours does seem to permit a degree of "cheating" when it comes to producing things presented as art, especially in the field of music...just saying...

Next week I am going to backtrack three years and begin discussing other science fiction short stories from 1964, using this time around the first anthology from the Wollheim and Carr series that I've been using recently...

Social Movements Need to Display More Honesty in Their Approach

When I hear of different social movements going on around me I often get a little taken aback by what I perceive as an inherently dishonest approach taken by those promoting them.  This manifests in four different areas: retroactive political correctness, restricting public debate only to areas that serve the movement's goals, treating the movement as something that had better be accepted or else, and removing personal responsibility from those whose interests are being furthered.  If those in the movement are pursuing something worthwhile,  that means that if they are successful then today's world and people's accompanying attitudes toward the issue in question will be better than they were yesterday, so consequently in such a positive scenario the past...along with what people believed and did back then...will naturally seem less enlightened and more subject to criticism.   Some celebrity or politician may have said something in 2005 about an issue that has since moved on and now somebody else wants to call them to task for it, or this movie or that book uses language that since has been adjudged to be insensitive or hurtful to one group or another...and the temptation is to retroactively condemn the person and censor expression, right?  But shouldn't we instead, in an enlightened, supposedly educated society, have enough sophistication to place the past in its proper context and appreciate the change for the better?   Movements may insist on "necessary conversations", but what they really mean is that you can only say what they want you to say and any attempt at broadening the message of their narrative or mitigating its generalizations is impermissible...they'll say it's their debate right now and you're just being tone-deaf, insensitive, or worse if you disagree with or even just modify one or more of their cherished positions.  If they want to essentially take over sections in different cities with protests, even vandalizing businesses and homes while harassing residents, pedestrians and customers in the area, well, this is such an important issue in their minds that they feel justified that everything else must completely shut down until they get what they want.  And with these movements, usually a group is labeled as the "victim" of another group...in their narratives, the incidents of victimization almost always portray the victim as passive and blameless or severely downplay his or her behavior in the incident being spotlighted.  But an honest discussion of anything should involve the actions of all parties involved...

I know there's a lot of injustice going on around me on different fronts and believe that if you want to draw the whole population into honestly recognizing it and working to make our society a more equitable and fair place to live instead of dividing them along political battle lines, then you're going to have to learn to listen respectfully to others with a differing point of view from you if you want them to be willing in turn to respectfully hear out your own agenda.  You may discern that in this article I'm thinking primarily of one particular social movement, and I'm largely in sympathy with its message and aims, albeit incompletely expressed...so let's allow for a more open, honest and civilly-responsible discussion which I believe in the end will contribute to a more unified, constructive outcome... 

People With Connections

Everyone who isn't a complete hermit...and even a few of those, I suspect...has connections.  By this I mean that in their social, economic and family life they are in relationship with certain people who can do things for them, be they supplying protection, better economic, educational and social opportunities...or possibly even some things that are on the underside of society, maybe even beyond the law.  It's this last area that I'm referring to here today, and in doing so I must be oh-so-careful to tread very lightly...

Maybe you've seen the movie Forrest Gump starring Tom Hanks, in which a boy with a more limited intellectual capacity nevertheless grows up and enjoys a very fruitful and interesting life.  The people around him...other than his best friend Bubba...all seem to revel in their perceived higher relative intelligence to him and almost without exception seem determined to use their own "smarts" to underhanded means.  Time after time Forrest eschews the seamy connections that others foster and instead directs his own life cleanly, and on his terms.  That may have been one of the biggest lessons I drew from this film.  I don't want to be identified in the least with people I discern are connected with illegal or unethical networks...yet at the same time openly shunning them would seem to imply that I know what they're up to.  So instead I tend to operate in a benignly informal, but distanced manner around those who seem to be the unwarranted hub of social interest and who seem to always have a hand in everything (and everyone) around them that possessing an extroverted or winsome personality does not completely account for...then again, they might simply be constantly on the make.  If the result of this means that those "in the know" decide to regard me as naïve or simple then I suppose that's the way it will have to be. To give a couple more cinematic examples, in The Godfather and Taxi Driver singer Johnny Fontaine (played by Al Martino) and cabby Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro)...characters on opposite ends of society...nevertheless both contact their respective connections to get what they want. If this article reads like I'm dancing around the subject without directly addressing it, then I've succeeded: if I'm more explicit or detailed then I've missed the point, which is that this is a universal social phenomenon, present in virtually all of our institutions and which tends to corrupt them depending on the degree that leadership tolerates it: each of us has to deal with it in the manner that befits us best. Just keep in mind that behind some connections the system of justice has no due process, and once you're "in" it may be difficult to ever get yourself "out"...

Great Old TV Episodes: from The Andy Griffith Show

 ANDY DISCOVERS AMERICA from The Andy Griffith Show (1963)

The Andy Griffith Show is one of my all-time favorite comedy TV series...at least the episodes that featured Don Knotts as bumbling, fastidious Deputy Barney Fife.  This one was from Season 3 and originally broadcast in early 1963...Fife was a secondary character in this episode, but his contribution to it is what inspired me to pick it for this week's article.  In the mythical North Carolina town of Mayberry, Sheriff Andy Taylor's little boy Opie joins his classmates in rebelling against their new teacher Helen Crump after his dad makes a careless remark belittling the study of history.  When Helen angrily confronts Andy over the incident, he contritely decides to make the study of American history more interesting to his son.  Barney brings up the comic relief: after first bragging about his history prowess, Andy tests him about the Emancipation Proclamation...after hemming and hawing about what it is, he decides to make it "his" topic for the rest of the episode.  Poor Barney...it's obvious the words sounded impressive to him and he thought that dropping them around others would make him sound more learned.  But suppose he really was interested and knowledgeable about President Lincoln's 1863 executive decree during the Civil War, designed to outlaw slavery in seceding states while allowing it to remain in slave states loyal to the Union.  It's an interesting topic, but since it's something that was a typical part of school curricula, then adults tend to shun any discussion of it. Andy instead gets Opie enthusiastic about history by inventing a lot of exciting made-up stuff that only marginally rings of truth.  As for here and now, try bringing up in conversation with other adults the Emancipation Proclamation, foreign language grammar elements, math concepts like quadratic equations and techniques of integration, types of chemical reactions or anything else that may have been something that students in school had been assigned to learn...even with those adults whose fields coincide with the subject matter...and it is certain that you will be rebuffed.  Instead grownups are chiefly concerned in conversation about pridefully crowing over their own titles and wealth status along with career and academic milestones and awards they've received...not the actual things they devoted so much time and effort to learn in their youth: it's almost as if school-learned content were taboo in social intercourse...

 

I enjoyed this episode a lot in spite of Barney getting dissed on his adopted, treasured history topic: I feel your pain, bro... 

Both Pennsylvania NFL Teams Tank in Important Final Regular Season Games

Today the National Football League playoffs begin with three games today and three tomorrow.  Two teams, the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants, though, won't be participating, due in large part to the league's Pennsylvania teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles, tanking in their own respective ways in the final regular season game.  Pittsburgh, already assured of a first round home game, decided to sit out their star quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and other essential first team starters for their final contest against the Cleveland Browns, a team struggling to make the playoffs for the first time in many years.  In spite of the Steelers benching many of their best players, the Browns just barely won the game 24-22...the outcome doubtless would have gone to Pittsburgh had they taken this game seriously.  But they didn't, and by so doing gave Cleveland the final wildcard playoff spot over Miami, which would have had the tiebreaker advantage for the two teams had the Browns lost.  As for Philadelphia, in a close contest against the Washington Redskins Football Team who needed to avoid losing to them to get into the playoffs over the New York Giants, were into the fourth quarter when they refused to try a potential game-tying field goal and then benched their starting quarterback Jason Hurts and other offensive players for the team's final attempt of the game, now behind by six points.  The Eagles players were besides themselves in shock at their coach Doug Pederson's decision to tank (although he denied that intention) and a couple had to be restrained from approaching him.  The resulting loss gives Philadelphia higher draft picks, but it also ensured that the New York Giants wouldn't make the playoffs since they likewise would have beaten Washington with a tiebreaker advantage...

The Miami Dolphins are "my" team in the NFL, so Pittsburgh's actions disappointed me the most...I actually was pulling for Washington to beat Philadelphia based largely on my recent trip to that city and my respect for their veteran quarterback Alex Smith.  But it was disgusting to see what the Eagles' coach did at the end of that game and it made the "Football Team's" victory much less than sweet...

Quote of the Week...from Vito Corleone

I spent my whole life trying not to be careless.  Women and children can afford to be careless, but not men.                                                                Don Vito Corleone, The Godfather

A  couple of years ago I wrote about another quote from the fictional organized crime magnate protagonist of The Godfather, so ably portrayed by Marlon Brando in the 1972 movie.  In that article I alluded to today's quote but didn't delve too deeply into it.  The quote is a product of the times and culture it would have supposedly been delivered in, when society's leaders...those who had the power and responsibility to make decisions that could impact others and themselves in either a positive...or sometimes very destructive...way, were by and large men with women largely excluded.  In today's world where women are becoming more of an active force within leadership, I would change Corleone's statement to "The rest can afford to be careless, but not adults in positions of authority."  Adults, especially in a leadership capacity, be it in a family, school, business, politics, or any other societal institution, make themselves a visible target of anyone "lower" than them who has built up a negative narrative and has some axes to grind...regardless whether the "leader" has ever done them any harm.  Once someone accuses someone in a position of authority of abusing their power or harassment, the individual in question sadly often stands ruined by the accusation...even when the produced evidence demonstrates their innocence.  There is in today's politically correct world a tendency to exalt the subjective testimony of the aggrieved and to impart greater validity to their charges when they either use emotional fervency or identify with a "victim" group to enhance the impact of their words.  To objectively and fairly treat the accused can then place those listening to the grievance in a setting where they themselves can be accused of covering up or having ulterior motives should they ultimately reject the charges, so they can find themselves tempted to excessively criticize the accused even when he or she has done nothing wrong besides possibly being careless.   I don't know of any way to change this state of affairs, but instead suggest that anyone who is a leader on any level...no matter how obscure...observe the Godfather's quote for themselves by restricting communication and interaction with others outside the immediate family and their established, close circle of friends and colleagues to public-based forums or at least assuring the presence of a third party.  That means nix it with one-on-one phone texting and Facebook Messenger outside your close circle of family and trusted friends and associates as well as delegating phoning of others to someone in a supportive position when you're dealing with people you don't really know all that well...and steer away from meeting...or even proposing meeting...with another you don't know well without someone else present.  It's sad to have to say that, but there are some real bad actors out there, even psychopaths who've become very adept at destroying other people's lives.  But there are even many, many more people who, due to their own often distorted personal narratives...in which false memory can play a role...or simply from honest misunderstandings, can misinterpret perfectly innocent communications and actions on a leader's part...better to protect yourself by being careful...

Electoral College Congressional Objectors Merit Fascist Designation

I looked up the definition of "facism" on Bing..."an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization".  So henceforth, in light of the attempted coup d'état instigated by Donald Trump and carried out by his personality-cult-transfixed worshippers when they stormed the Capitol during Congress's counting of the Electoral College vote certifying Joseph Biden as the next president, I am now classifying those senators and representatives voting to object to the count and thereby overturn our democratic election as "fascist", no longer Republican.  I am also calling Trump, who expressed approval of the defeat of his own party's US Senate candidates from Georgia, a "fascist" along the lines of Mussolini, Hitler, and Franco.  But not Vice-President Pence, who in the final hour has demonstrated courage in the face of God knows how much pressure to conform to Trump's dictatorial agenda.  Here is a link to the list of who I consider to be fascist traitors...including Kat Cammack, my own newly-sworn in (to uphold the US Constitution) representative and my senator Rick Scott: [Congressional Objectors List].  By the way, a poll recorded that 45% of Republicans at large approved of the insurrection yesterday: they're fascists as well, in my estimation...

New Celestron Telescope

Melissa gave me a very interesting Christmas present this year: a Celestron Powerseeker 127EQ reflector telescope that promises to open up the nighttime sky in much enhanced detail for me.  I haven't yet assembled it, though. I'd like to get more backyard privacy first in order to use it without the neighbors freaking out. Putting it together shouldn't be that difficult, especially with a number of YouTube "how to" videos to assist.  January, usually marked by dry, cool weather and clear skies here in northern Florida, is the best month for star-gazing with Orion, the most spectacular constellation of all, high in the southern sky...but regardless of the time or season there should always be something interesting to see.  I greatly look forward to viewing the moon and planets in greater detail as well as nebulae, star clusters and galaxies.  Stay tuned...

Weekly Short Stories: 1967 Science Fiction, Part 3

Well, here it is Wednesday once again and time for my weekly review of selected short stories, continuing my focus on science fiction year-by-year as they came out.  Below are my reactions to the next four stories appearing in the retrospective anthology World's Best Science Fiction 1968, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr, and presenting their choices of 1967's top tales.  At the time I was ten going on eleven and not yet into reading science fiction...although I would soon get hold of some of my father's old sci-fi paperbacks and become a lifelong fan of the genre...

POPULATION IMPLOSION by Andrew J. Offutt

Written from the perspective of 1967, this story presents a scenario beginning in the late twentieth century when the world's population approaches five billion...and then elderly people begin to simply stop living, beginning with all of the oldest and progressively going to those in younger age groups.  What is causing these deaths? No medical causes can be discerned, only that people at specified ages automatically die.  The narrator is in on this ominous trend early on and eventually comes up with an explanation...which delves pretty heavily into metaphysics and the nature of life and "souls"... 

I HAVE NO MOUTH, AND I MUST SCREAM by Harlan Ellison

I have a somewhat perverse fascination with the early twentieth century horror writer H.P. Lovecraft's stories.  This story by Ellison takes Lovecraft and brings him into the computer age, producing a tale chillingly foretelling the Matrix movie series as a supercomputer has taken captive within it the last five survivors of a humanity foolish enough to build a ring of supercomputers worldwide to help them fight each other...until the machines unite against their creators: now where have I heard this before?  The ending is so disturbing I have trouble visualizing how anyone could accurately adapt it to screen...

THE SWORD SWALLOWER by Ron Goulart

Goulart reportedly had a recurring character in his stories, a shape-shifting man named Ben Jolson who can impersonate anyone.  In this tale he is assigned to discover the source of a series of mysterious kidnappings of political and government leaders.  The setting is pretty far into the future as humanity is now an interstellar race with the established ruling planet of Barnum being challenged by Earth.  I enjoyed the humor of the characters, their dialog and the action.  Lots of laughs here, although I felt it was a bit shallow in the final analysis...

CORANDA by Keith Roberts

It's way off in the distant future on Earth, now nearly completely engulfed by ice in a sweeping Ice Age that has caused sea life to adapt itself to life on the surface. Human society has regressed to a much more primitive and superstitious state, with the Ice Mother deity dominating people's actions and explanations for the harshness around them.  It's a dog-eat-dog world, and the community's beautiful young woman princess Coranda offers herself as the prize for the man who can brave the long ice journey on his ice yacht to fight, kill and bring back the fabled and dangerous unicorn...the existence of which the story cleverly explains.  The ending to this very harsh and bloody tale gives some hope for humanity's future as the "winner" makes an unexpected decision concerning his last surviving, injured rival.  Difficult to read, but with a good conclusion... 

Next week I conclude my look at the year 1967 in the genre of short science fiction...

Recap of My List of 100 All-Time Favorite Songs

The following listing of my 100 all-time favorite songs is actually a subset of my 500 all-time favorites, for which I presented articles each Monday starting with #500-491 on August 26, 2019 and finishing with #1 on December 21, 2020...you can go back in my blog archives to find your song...just use the blog search window in the upper left corner (in the web, not phone app format).  Once again, these are my highly subjective, personal favorites and don't represent an artistic critique of these works...I'm confident that your own list would greatly diverge from mine...

1 These Are My Twisted Words...Radiohead

2 Switchblade Smiles...Kasabian

3 Us...Regina Spektor

4 When the Levee Breaks...Led Zeppelin

5 Time to Pretend...MGMT

6 Firewood...Regina Spektor

7 Building a Mystery...Sarah McLachlan

8 For My Lady...the Moody Blues

9 Landslide...Fleetwood Mac

10 Living for the City...Stevie Wonder

11 Misty Mountain Hop...Led Zeppelin

12 #9 Dream...John Lennon

13 Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End...the Beatles

14 Close to the Edge...Yes

15 Eleanor Rigby...the Beatles

16 It's All Over Now...the Rolling Stones

17 Give It Away...Red Hot Chili Peppers

18 Blackstar...David Bowie

19 Flaming...Pink Floyd

20 Novocaine for the Soul...the Eels

21 The Wasp (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)...the Doors

22 Invisible Sun...the Police

23 O Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head...Sufjan Stevens

24 Street Fighting Man...the Rolling Stones

25 Find the River...R.E.M.

26 Legend of a Mind...the Moody Blues

27 Reason is Treason...Kasabian

28 Destination Unknown...Missing Persons

29 Dialogue (Parts 1 & 2)...Chicago

30 Luka...Suzanne Vega

31 For No One...the Beatles

32 Scentless Apprentice...Nirvana

33 Love is Like Oxygen...the Sweet

34 Morning Bell...Radiohead

35 Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding...Elton John

36 Strawberry Fields Forever...the Beatles

37 Peace Frog...the Doors

38 Even Flow...Pearl Jam

39 Darkness...the Police

40 I Won't Back Down...Tom Petty

41 Hummingbird...Seals and Crofts

42 Scarborough Fair...Simon and Garfunkel

43 What's Going On...Marvin Gaye

44 Calculation (Theme)...Metric

45 Father and Son...Cat Stevens

46 Floating...the Moody Blues

47 Up the Ladder to the Roof...the Supremes

48 East of Ginger Trees...Seals and Crofts

49 Timebomb...Beck

50 Time in a Bottle...Jim Croce

51 Fiery Crash...Andrew Bird

52 The Good's Gone...the Wh0

53 Again...Alice in Chains

54 Neon Bible...Arcade Fire

55 Sunny Came Home...Shawn Colvin

56 Changes...David Bowie

57 Blackbird...the Beatles

58 Lonely People...America

59 Not Enough Time...INXS

60 Lazy Day...the Moody Blues

61 Treat...Kasabian

62 In Limbo...Radiohead

63 Under Pressure...Queen/David Bowie

64 Red Barchetta...Rush

65 Stairway to Heaven...Led Zeppelin

66 No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature...the Guess Who

67 The Little Black Egg...the Night Crawlers

68 Fearless...Pink Floyd

69 In a Big Country...Big Country

70 Twist and Shout...the Beatles

71 Be Good Johnny...Men At Work

72 America...Simon and Garfunkel

73 Stranglehold...Ted Nugent

74 Take the Long Way Home...Supertramp

75 Eight Miles High...the Byrds

76 Sunshine on My Shoulders...John Denver

77 Debussy's Arabesque No. 1...Isao Tomita

78 Tomorrow Never Knows...the Beatles

79 Fly Away...Lenny Kravitz

80 Casimir Pulaski Day...Sufjan Stevens

81 Tiny Dancer...Elton John

82 Magic Bus...the Who

83 Never Going Back Again...Fleetwood Mac

84 One Step Into the Light...the Moody Blues

85 No Milk Today...Herman's Hermits

86 Shapes of Things...the Yardbirds

87 Shock the Monkey...Peter Gabriel

88 Soft Rock Star...Metric

89 Livin' Thing...Electric Light Orchestra

90 Eli's Coming...Three Dog Night

91 My Wave...Soundgarden

92 Happy Just to Dance With You...the Beatles

93 Little Green Bag...George Baker Selection

94 Faust Arp...Radiohead

95 All You Need is Love...the Beatles

96 I Can't Explain...the Who

97 Blue Sky Mine...Midnight Oil

98 Oceans...Pearl Jam

99 Canary in a Coalmine...the Police

100 Man of a Thousand Faces...Regina Spektor

More About the COVID-19 Vaccination Process

Back in my New Years Day article I expressed some of my frustrations about COVID-19 and the early vaccination process.  I'm 64 and "just" too young to make the cutoff for seniors getting priority, and my state's governor is refusing to honor the federal guidelines giving "essential" workers the next round...postal workers are included in that classification which Ron Desantis has decided to deemphasize.  So I've basically fallen through the cracks and will need to wait.  That may be just as well seeing how disorganized the vaccine distribution and administration process has been during the last several days...hopefully by the time my "turn" comes up they'll have worked out the snags and we'll be flooded with available vaccines.  In the meantime I will have to work around many who absolutely refuse to wear masks or socially distance, putting my health and safety...as well as that of my wife...at greater risk.  There's a misguided proposal to delay needed second doses of the vaccine...very bad idea, which I've been told will only give the virus much more opportunity to mutate and resist further attempts to control it down the line.  I'm not judging people if they choose not to vaccinate for the coronavirus, but they can at least wear masks and socially distance...to me any refusal to do that is an open act of aggression and should be treated as an assault on others...

Great Old TV Episodes: from the Original Star Trek

 DAY OF THE DOVE from Star Trek (1968)

Day of the Dove was one of the final episodes from the original Star Trek series, consigned to be cancelled after being relegated to the "dead zone" scheduled airing time of 10 on Friday nights.  At the time I didn't particularly like this episode, largely because of what I perceived to be the flawed acting as McCoy, Chekov, Scotty...and others...all seem to be speaking out of character, very angry, fearful and vindictive.  Which was the whole point of the episode, actually, as the Enterprise under Captain Kirk finds itself manipulated by an alien life force feeding on negative feelings and conflict into open warfare with survivors of a Klingon vessel.  The entity exacerbates the passions of the crews on both sides, even creating false memories of past atrocities that never happened.  Although back in '68 I wasn't too enamored with the story, today it rings very loud as I look at the way social and mass media are doing essentially the same things as that twirling, insubstantial alien entity on this episode, whipping up folks' anger and outrage against the "other side" behind the scenes while giving time to any conspiracy theory or "alternative facts" that can provide them higher ratings or hits.  I'm sick of Facebook and Twitter for this and finally felt the need to detach myself from them, at least as far as posting links to them to this blog is concerned.  This society of ours is quickly spiraling downward as people bubble themselves off in insulated feedback loops where they only hear and read viewpoints and information that panders to their bubble's narrative...not healthy at all.  If you have Netflix you can see all the old Star Trek episodes...this one's still not exactly one of my favorites, but you need to carefully watch and listen to Chekov, Scotty, and McCoy as they go over the edge and then look around you at what's going down today with people who normally seem rational.  I recommend the documentary film The Social Dilemma, which you can also watch on Netflix...click on the title to read my review from September...

2021 Brings Opportunities for Positive Change

I think many of us are happy to have a "break" in the times with this New Year of 2021...even if it is only artificial.  After all, we still have the same old people around us with their same old attitudes to contend with...and we're still the same old people we were in 2020, complete with our own baggage.  As for me, I like these opportunities to resolve to do things a bit better...take them to a higher level, I say.  Nothing revolutionary, but live my daily life in a smarter way that works better for me and my loved ones.  It's always a good exercise to examine one's own life and see specific areas to work on...I have my own and have written them out.  Now I need to implement these changes by making habits of them, incorporating them into my daily routine without a lot of fanfare.  I hope the coming year brings blessings and opportunities for positive, constructive change to you and your own loved ones...  

Quote of the Week...from Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris

 I trust the public health experts on this, and I urge everyone to do the same.     

                            Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris.

Kamala Harris is referring above to the COVID-19 vaccine, which she publicly took Wednesday...hers was the Moderna version.  I'm with her on this, but it's starting to get a little old watching the procession of politicians and celebrities performing this public ritual, which naturally brings them the "incidental" benefit of immunization from a deadly disease while casting themselves as public benefactors in the process.  Not that I'm against the President and Vice-President, both present and future...as well as aging celebrities and politicians, active or retired...getting the vaccine.  But there's no telling how long it will take...probably months, before I, a 64-year old active postal worker (supposedly essential) will be allowed to partake of the vaccination process, yet I'm getting barraged in the media by high-talking folks shaming me in advance if I don't get it.  The other day they showed elderly Americans who were allowed the vaccines...there was an outside line of them that stretched endlessly down the street.  And what's to say when it is finally my turn that they try to foist a less effective version of the vaccine than Pfizer or Moderna...I simply won't accept anything but one of those two.  I am already heavily disheartened by the cavalier attitude of a large portion of my colleagues...from the top down...who reject wearing masks or social distancing.  Even after all this is over, I will never forget those who were so selfish and hateful that they refused to wear a mask around me, even when it was offered for free.  I work in an environment of pandemic denial that cuts across demographics, with so many deliberately choosing not to give a damn about the safety of coworkers and their susceptible families...

I made a point of referring to Kamala Harris as Vice President-Elect because incredibly there is still a move afoot to deny her and her running mate President-Elect Joe Biden their duly-won election victory with a proposed scam involving current Vice President Mike Pence's handling of the Electoral College results next week...to his credit he has refused to play along.  Can you imagine what would have happened among the very people advocating this had the shoe been on the other foot and the Democrats were trying to overthrow a presidential election with more than 50 lawsuits and attempts to sway state governors and legislatures while impeding the transition and repeatedly claiming extensive voter fraud...and finally trying to manipulate the Vice-President himself?  Truly abysmal.  As I recall, it was election night 2016 when Hillary Clinton conceded that equally-close election to Trump, and President Obama promptly invited him over to the White House as the new President-Elect with the transition process expedited.  No lawsuits or interference with state governments.  What's going on now isn't "payback", it's treason...

This Blog to Leave Facebook Starting Tomorrow, 1/1/21

My blog URL is wmirwinsblog.blogspot.com.  I mention this because starting New Years Day 2021, tomorrow, I will no longer be posting links to it on Facebook or Twitter.  I am fed up with these social media platforms for a number of reasons and decided that I couldn't take them anymore...if you can, then the more power to you.  I don't know whether or not I'll eventually shut down my accounts, but for the time being I'm done with posting on them, and with no intention to return.  For those of you who like to read this blog, and for the smaller number who like to give me feedback, I'm still continuing with it as usual and can be accessed with the above URL.  I also welcome comments, which you can make by viewing the blog article in question in web format (not phone app format)...at the bottom is a window to write your reaction, which I'll receive and review before posting it.  And with this system, you can comment and request that I don't publish it, and I will comply!  When I began this blog project in 2007 I intended it to be a disciplined exercise in daily writing, and my goal is still the same.  For the first two or three years I received comments ranging the globe and felt I was a part of the burgeoning community of bloggers.  But then Facebook exploded onto the scene and the number of active blogs and bloggers drastically contracted...my solution was to post links to my articles on that social media site, with mixed results.  So now I'm off Facebook (and Twitter), but my blog's still out there in the great, wide blogosphere.   Wishing all of you a healthy and prosperous New Year!

My December 2020 Running and Walking Report

For December 2020 I ran a total of 92 miles and walked for 118.  I missed five running days for various reasons and my longest single run was for 7.5 miles and another one at 6.7...both coming near the beginning of the month. I don't see much change in my running and walking for the near future and don't see myself, in this COVID pandemic environment, engaging in any public races whether they're offered or not.  I'm basically in a holding pattern with running and walking right now...maybe in the future after things start to get back to normal I might hit the gym more and try longer distances again.  But not right now...

Weekly Short Stories: 1967 Science Fiction, Part 2

Here my reactions to the next four entries from the retroactive anthology World's Best Science Fiction 1968, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr and covering what they selected from the previous year's works.  One of the attractions to these kinds of year-to-year anthologies is the introduction section, both to the book and to each individual story.  By reading them you get a better sense of the authors' writing approaches, as well as some suggestions leading to other recommended stories of theirs.  Looking back on 1967 in my life, I spent a good part of my time that summer climbing trees...behind my old elementary school near my house they had some Australian pines tailor-made for that activity.  Now whenever I walk past a tree in my own neighborhood...or anywhere else for that matter...I feel compelled to appraise it for its possibilities and how high up I could go (at least if I were still ten years old like I was in '67)... 

BILLIARD BALL by Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov went through a few years in the 1960s when he was focusing on nonfiction writing...here's one of his science fiction stories of that time.  A theoretical physicist and an entrepreneurial engineer capitalizing on the former's discoveries have had an ongoing association for years in which the competition between them has become heated and bitter.  It culminates when the businessman sets up a public demonstration of imparting zero mass to objects...something the theoretician claimed not feasible in spite of his own theory...in order to humiliate him.  The story transforms into a murder mystery...a genre of fiction that Asimov was also good at...

HAWKSBILL STATION by Robert Silverberg

The setting is the Cambrian Period of Earth's geologic past when no land-based life existed but invertebrate animal life proliferated in the oceans.  It's the setting where political prisoners from early in the 21st century (remember this was written in 1967) are sent back in time to live out the rest of their lives in forced exile...trilobites in all their varieties are the main dish. Barrett, an old-time exile resident of Hawksbill Station as it is called...and their de facto leader...has a new challenge as a new inmate is transmitting back in time to his era through the time portal they call "The Hammer".  Just who is this Lew Hahn and what is he up to?"  Although a time travel story, Hawksbill Station was more a look at what conditions were like during this fascinating period in our planet's distant prehistory. Silverberg later expanded it into a full-length novel...

THE NUMBER YOU HAVE REACHED by Thomas M. Disch

An astronaut is returning from an exploratory mission to Mars in which his two partners accidentally died...alone he lands on Earth to discover that nuclear war has wiped out all humanity, save himself.  Living on the top floor of a tall city building, he sets up his daily routine...which is rudely interrupted when he gets a phone call, an angry, accusing woman on the other end.  His reactions to her...and her attitude toward him...are the intriguing elements of this very brief tale..

THE MAN WHO LOVED THE FAIOLI by Roger Zelazny

In the cosmos there is an angelic type of female entity call the Faioli that comfort men who are on the cusp of death...and then mercifully end their suffering while consuming them.  A man with a special condition that allows him to enter and leave life is the perpetual caretaker of an interstellar graveyard.  A Faioli visits him but cannot detect his presence until he turns his own life back on...what an incredibly interesting and unique premise for a story.  This one's my favorite of the tales I reviewed today, although I was partial to Hawksbill Station as well...

Next week I continue discussing some of the best in short science fiction from the year 1967...

Just Finished Reading Empire by Clifford Simak

Clifford D. Simak (1904-88) was primarily a short story science fiction and western writer for about twenty years before he began to tackle the longer novel form...Empire was his third published novel, from 1951.  The story's premise is simple and understandable enough...that is, until the author gets bogged down with his presentation of the "science" behind the outlandish discoveries dictating its resolution.  Humanity is sometime off in the not-too-distant future and has settled several planets and moons in our solar system.  But the kind of explosive progress in space exploration and settlement that could happen is being stymied by one company's monopoly on energy throughout the system. Two pipe-smoking scientists, however, are working on a discovery that promises to revolutionize the extraction of energy and shift the rules of the game away from the monopolist and put them into the hands of the people.  Spoiler warning: I'm now going to discuss the novel's ending, so if you're planning to read it you might want to stop here. Empire's characters were okay but the way the two hero scientists manipulate time and distance to defeat their monopolistic foe reminded me of TV shows like Bewitched in which ordinary people are made to look like fools whenever Samantha decides to twitch her little nose.  The ending made little sense to me...the way was made open for folks to freely settle the planets and other star systems and establish their mines: for what?  For with their "two fields" theory, the scientists can instantaneously provide essentially free energy, instantaneously see and hear anywhere (in the universe), instantaneously go anywhere (in the universe), and travel in time.  And they're going to make these gifts available to everybody: sounds like a nightmare scenario to me instead of a happy ending.  I like Clifford Simak's writing, with The Big Front Yard and City ranking high among my favorite science fiction short stories and novels, respectively.  Empire, though, represented a step backward from his deserved greatness.  Still, it's a short read and you might find yourself laughing at it as I did...

My Personal Top Favorite Songs of 2020

The below list of my top favorite songs of 2020 bears a little explaining.  First of all...with the notable exception of Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien's brilliant singles release Shangri-La (under the name EOB), I heard no actual 2020 releases through the normal means of broadcast radio or music channels.  The rest of my list is split between tracks from Sufjan Stevens' wonderful 2020 album The Ascension and various songs I've become attached to as I have been exploring the late Prince's vast collection of albums.  With each title I have indicated the artist, followed by the song's album...and with Prince, the year of that album's release.  With Prince's Black Album, it was originally recorded and slated for release in 1987 but he had second thoughts and stopped it...it later was released in 1994 on a limited basis.  As for the #2 entry, it's actually two successive tracks on Stevens' album that naturally run together as one song...

1 THE ASCENSION...Sufjan Stevens (The Ascension)

2 DEATH STAR/GOODBYE TO ALL THAT...Sufjan Stevens (The Ascension)

3 ALPHABET STREET...Prince (Lovesexy, 1988)

4 CINDY C...Prince (The Black Album, 1967, 1994)

5 LANDSLIDE...Sufjan Stevens (The Ascension)

6 MOUNTAINS...Prince (Parade, 1986)

7 SHANGRI-LA...EOB (Earth)

8 POSITIVITY...Prince (Lovesexy, 1988)

9 LE GRIND...Prince (The Black Album, 1987, 1994)

10 AMERICA...Prince (Around the World in a Day, 1985)

11 URSA MAJOR...Sufjan Stevens (The Ascension)

12 HOUSEQUAKE...Prince (Sign o' the Times, 1987)

13 POP LIFE...Prince (Around the World in a Day, 1985)

14 LOOSE!...Prince (Come, 1994)

15 CINNAMON GIRL...Prince (Musicology, 2005)

Great Old TV Episodes: from The Twilight Zone

THE OLD MAN IN THE CAVE from The Twilight Zone (1963)

I'm considering today's entry on this blog as the first one in a new weekly series, where I pick a particular episode from one of the old television series I used to watch and discuss it.  Before long you might discern that the pool of TV series I draw from is relatively limited...sad to say, in the past thirty years or so I haven't been all that enchanted with what's been offered out there.  Still, having grown up a complete TV addict ever since I was a crib-shaking, paint-eating rebellious little baby, I have plenty of material to keep this going for quite a while.  For today I picked an old Twilight Zone episode, from 1963: The Old Man in the Cave...

It's ten years after a nuclear war holocaust and one man is leading his small group of people through survival.  He goes off and consults periodically with an "old man in the cave" who gives reports of radiation levels and which foods are edible and which are contaminated and deadly.  The people want desperately to return to the old "normal" times but grudgingly follow their leader...that is, until three armed renegade soldiers, led by a young, charismatic James Coburn, convince them to overthrow him and eat and drink all their canned and bottled items.  After all, it looks and tastes good, so it must be okay, right?  The old man in the cave represents the knowledge and authority of science while Coburn's character stands for the demagogues who feed off the fears and inconvenience experienced by the population to lead them astray.  The applications of this episode to today's situation with the coronavirus pandemic and those who deny it and refuse to wear face coverings, socially distance, or avoid large gatherings should be obvious...

Next week: another TV episode from the past...

Sitting at Starbucks Recalling Old Training Run

I enjoyed Christmas yesterday with my family...I hope you're enjoying the holiday season as well.  I'm going in to work today, even though it's my "off day"...looks like they're seriously short-staffed: no problem!  Right now I'm sitting outside my nearest Starbucks with the temperature here in Gainesville around 40 degrees, a little past noon on what may be the coldest day (and night) of the year.  I'm looking at a couple, heavily clad, jogging down the path on the other side of NW 43rd Street, reminding me of my memorable Christmas run ten years ago.  That afternoon Melissa had been called in to work, and I decided to go out to see how far I could run.  It was around 60 degrees and overcast to the point of being dark even though it was only mid-to-early afternoon when I began the run, which took me winding through one subdivision after another until I was far west of Devil's Milhopper on NW 53rd Avenue...then I made my way gradually back.  Through the entire run I encountered almost nobody...it was a virtual ghost town that yuletide day in 2010 with one stark exception: while passing through Felasco Park off NW 43rd Street...just a short walk from where I'm sitting right now...I passed a huge family of people walking the other way: they seemed Middle Eastern or Iranian in appearance as we smiled at each other.  By the time I was back in my own home area the skies were turning black with the night...just when I reached my "runner's block" at around 20 miles it began to rain and I returned home soaked.  Now that's the kind of training run I long for!  I'd still like to try it all again, but I think it would be at a much slower pace, with more walking breaks interspersed.  Well, I think I'd better fold up this laptop before my hands freeze off and get on to work...

Merry Christmas

I'd like to take this moment to wish all of you a happy holiday today...Merry Christmas!  May peace, joy, health, prosperity, wisdom...and love...all be abundant in your lives!

Free Pluto TV Has James Bond Channel

Around my family recently the question came up about what I wanted for Christmas...struggling to come up with something, I responded that I'd like a James Bond DVD since I enjoy watching that spy movie series.  My daughter Rebecca then informed me that there is a free channel on Roku called Pluto which plays James Bond movies 24/7, with other channels devoted to genre-based films and specific television series like Star Trek and MacGyver.  I checked it out and can now confidently state that at any given moment in time (when I'm free to watch TV) I can find myself watching one of the 007 movies, stretching back from the first, Dr. No, from 1962 all the way through Die Another Day, from 2002...it does seem that the most recent ones featuring Daniel Craig as Bond are excluded, though, and you don't pick the movie but rather watch what's been scheduled: that works for me.  The channels on Pluto do include commercial breaks, which I am totally okay with...gives me opportunities to run to the kitchen or bathroom! Another channel, Tubi, provides all 17 episodes of the British science fiction series The Prisoner starring the late Patrick McGoohan...and it's also possible to access McGoohan's previous spy series Danger Man, marketed in the U.S. as Secret Agent Man with the famous Johnny Rivers theme song.  Not that I have the time to watch all this stuff, but it's nice to have this option with the Bond flicks.  Now all they need to do is come up with a Clint Eastwood channel...

Weekly Short Stories: 1967 Science Fiction, Part 1

Today I begin to examine some of the selected science fiction short stories from 1967 as they appeared in the following year's anthology World's Best Science Fiction 1968, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr.  In 1967, still living with my family in west Hollywood, I was finishing the fifth grade and transitioning into the sixth at Nova Elementary in Davie.  Summertime in between was full of tree climbing and outdoor games, highlighted by Slam, a tamer variant of basketball more suited to klutzes like myself.  I was a Monkees fan back then...at least early on in the year, and pretty much was ignoring the Beatles except for their releases of All You Need is Love (which they recorded live on a June special TV show called Our World) and Hello/Goodbye.  At the start of the school year in late summer I became ill with a high fever for several days: then, upon returning, the teachers went on strike statewide, my home room teacher never coming back.  In the news, the Vietnam War was raging and escalating with no end in sight...although I began to hear the cliché "light at the end of the tunnel" this year.  But we're discussing sci-fi of the time, aren't we, so without further ado here are my reactions to the first four stories in the book...

SEE ME NOT by Richard Wilson

Avery, a suburbanite living in the present time (c. 1967) with his wife, and two kids, wakes up one morning to discover that he has become completely invisible.  The story develops as he stumbles around with his affliction, shocking his wife and daughter while delighting his bold little son...then his secret leaks out and you get the different, predictable varieties of reaction among the surrounding people.  I thought it was a cute, funny story...it actually has an explanation and a reasonable resolution, which helps to firmly place it square in the science fiction genre instead of fantasy... 

DRIFTGLASS by Samuel R. Delany

In an overpopulated Earth of the future, the option has been developed whereby some people can be genetically transformed to have gills, webbed feet and hands, and scales that allow them to freely exist both in the sea and on land.  One such person is a man disabled from burns from a terrible underseas volcanic eruption while trying to lay down cable on the ocean floor.  The project that injured him is now going to be attempted again, and he naturally has mixed feelings on it all.  This is more or less a piece whose value lies in creating a plausible future scenario: genetic adaptation to underwater living, and I found it very intriguing...

AMBASSADOR TO VERDAMMT by Colin Kapp

On a newly explored planet humans encounter what is most definitely an intelligent life form there, but it is so strange that it cannot be contacted directly...they call for a special ambassador from Earth to serve as translator.  A skeptical technician ignores others' warnings and sets out to investigate these elusive beings...what a mind trip!  This story...especially its ending...reminded me of one of my all-time favorite science fiction short stories: the 1942 classic Mimsy Were the Borogroves by Lewis Padgett...

THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS by R.A. Lafferty

A "man of the future" makes a wager with other skeptical residents of a rural small town that he has the power to make a man disappear...and goes about causing it with all looking on. But it looks like he bit off a little more than he could chew when the wager's results become evident.  This story is an example of someone with great talent, yet behaving in a completely foolish manner with it...no telling what he could have done with it if his own mindset hadn't been so petty.  The ending shows, in mirror effect, another way to make a man disappear...

Next week I continue with my look at 1967 in short science fiction...

Just Finished Reading Glory Road by Robert Heinlein

Robert Heinlein was considered one of the greatest American science fiction writers of the past century, penning such works as Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and Starship Troopers.  He's also written many renowned short stories in the genre, which I've reviewed on this blog.  I just finished reading his 1964 novel Glory Road, which I didn't like as much as the others although it was acclaimed at the time.  In it a young man, Gordon, has just left the army after a stint in Vietnam in which he was classified as a "military advisor" but engaged in actual combat...he is something of an adventurer and is uncertain about what he wants to do with his future.  He meets a beautiful young woman, Star, and eventually gets drawn with her on a quest as he progressively discovers her importance, not only on Earth but throughout the multiverse.  Although on the surface Glory Road presented itself as a fantasy adventure with a lot of action sections, I got the distinct impression that Heinlein used the story primarily as a framework in which to insert his personal views of military valor and toughness and a libertarian perspective on society...especially concerning relationships and sex.  His protagonist Gordon, later named "Oscar", tells the narrative from the first-person viewpoint, complete with his own assumptions about people along with a liberal use of colloquial, idiomatic and slang language...that part I kind of liked and thought funny.  As I said, I didn't think that Glory Road was his best novel, but I'm glad I read it and think that it captures a certain mindset that prevailed among many living back then and even now...

My #1 All-Time Favorite Song: These Are My Twisted Words by Radiohead

THESE ARE MY TWISTED WORDS, by the British rock band Radiohead, is my all-time top favorite song.  It never was released as a single and appears on none of their albums.  The only reason I ever discovered its existence was that in late 2010 I happened to be on the band's website and they were offering it as a free download.  Download it I did, then put it on my MP3 player...and during the dark and dreary days of that winter...the last truly cold one we've experienced here in Gainesville... I listened to it often on my ultra-long distance runs through one neighborhood after another.  Looking back I cannot listen to it without associating it with that wonderful and interesting time...but association alone doesn't make a song Number One, does it? These Are My Twisted Words begins with a two-and-a-half minute dreamy instrumental sequence of layered guitars...along with an electronic cello-sounding background: definitely a "going down the rabbit role" kind of listening experience.  Eventually front man Thom Yorke breaks in with his plaintive singing style...he tackles his role here with much passion, evoking a sense of forlornness that I've seldom heard in a song.  It's a very moody piece, appealing to an often very moody person...namely, myself.  Although Radiohead didn't promote it in their recordings, they have performed it in concert...why it's such a relatively unknown work of theirs is beyond me.  In a funny way it shows that great rock doesn't have to be complicated...this song certainly has a simple basic structure, beyond the instrumental texturing.  It's been going on ten years now since I first heard it and my estimation of it has only increased...sometimes those overlooked, lost tracks are the best...

And that's it with my Top 500 list of personal all-time favorite songs.  Guess I'll be starting on a different "top favorites" list about something else before long...

The Great Conjunction of Planets Jupiter and Saturn Tomorrow Evening

Tomorrow evening...assuming there are clear skies above us...we should be treated to a rare astronomical event as the planets Jupiter and Saturn will appear the closest to each other they ever have from Earth's perspective in nearly 400 years.  This doesn't have anything to do with the two planets' distances from each other, though, and we're fortunate that both have moved eastward on their respective zodiacal paths so that when Monday's conjunction occurs they should be visible just above the southwestern horizon when the sun sets and the sky darkens.  Last night here in Gainesville the skies were overcast and the same is predicted tonight...tomorrow, though, they will be clear: alas, I'll be at work then.  Still, for the past few months I've enjoyed looking at the two largest planets in our solar system close together in the sky, in the constellation Sagittarius (just west of Capricornus, where they are now to be found).  Once you've seen them "hug" each other tomorrow evening in their celestial dance, then swing over to the high eastern sky and behold Mars, still much brighter than it is usually seen.  And, of course, the moon is right there in the middle of it all... 

Prince's Black Album...and Self-Censorship

Several weeks ago I wrote that I was going to explore the collective studio album works of the late, great popular musician Prince...I've heard about half of his 39 albums to date and think well of all of them, although naturally I like a few better than others.  One of these that I instantly took a liking to the first time I heard it...this time from YouTube...is the so-called "Black Album" which I originally thought was recorded and released in 1994.  Like the Beatles' so-called White Album from 1968, the Black Album is actually untitled, released in a black jacket.  Prince recorded it around 1987 and reportedly, with his backup band, took more time and effort to put it together than any other work of his...yet when it was released he suddenly did an about-face on it, proclaiming it "evil" and urging his fans not to buy it.  The release was stopped after just a few sales and the album would eventually be rereleased on CD in a limited edition eight years later.  Apparently, Prince disliked what he perceived as the album's negative bent, although its most negative track by far, Bob George...which had a very similar theme to Jimi Hendrix's rendition of Hey Joe...was something the artist continued to perform in concerts afterwards.  I thought it was an energetic (and often very funny) album with a great mix of musical styles...not my favorite Prince album but right up there with some of his best.  The point here that I'm trying to make is that anyone who creates music, art...or something on social media like Facebook or Twitter...can have times when they produce something they later think was inappropriate and would like to take back even though it's too late to do so.  It's a problem that all serious artists and writers have to face: you want to be true to your feelings and even passions...including the negative ones...but also are concerned about how they will be received by your audience and if there might not be pushback.  The way I handle this sort of thing on my blog...and I'm admittedly no wise guru on the subject...is to stay away from profanity and intentionally avoid singling out individual people for criticism...unless they are public figures like entertainment and media celebrities or politicians...and instead make more general comments about trends I see within society.  But beyond my own standards, employing self-censorship will only produce insipid, insincere, namby-pamby results that aren't worth anyone's attention.  It's a shame that Prince's Black Album was suppressed, but I suppose it was his call to make, not mine...

Quote of the Week...from Ray Bradbury

 You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture.  Just get people to stop reading them.

                                                                     ---Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury, who wrote prolifically and is responsible for many renowned works like Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Martian Chronicles, The Pedestrian...and perhaps his most famous, Fahrenheit 451, was a great lover of reading.  That last book I mentioned is what probably prompted the above quote as its setting was a future dystopia in which books were banned and burned.  I think that reading as a regular discipline or even as an enjoyable hobby has never been something that the majority of any given population...in any era...has taken to.  I also think that in today's world of Amazon, Kindle, and audiobooks, books have never been so available. Yet as I've mentioned before on this blog, those publications that haven't been digitalized and are out of print can be very hard to come by...quite unlike the music industry that has so successfully gone back to the vinyl record era and digitalized most of what has been recorded.  Regarding Bradbury's above quote, I would like to tweak the last sentence a little to read "Just get people to stop reading them critically, with discernment".  This goes especially for nonfiction works that advocate specific positions and ideologies on politics, society, history, lifestyle, dieting and the like. To enhance a culture rather than contribute to its destruction folks shouldn't just read stuff that panders to their preconceived notions and demonizes opposing perspectives and those holding them.  You need to take what's written and process it as to its truth value, as well as try to understand why the author is saying whatever he or she is saying.  Trump worshippers aren't going to expand their horizons by reading the latest Sean Hannity book, and likewise his detractors won't achieve a more broadened perspective taking up the book written by the president's niece, Mary Trump.  I'm not suggesting, either, that the two sides flip and read the "other side's" books...better instead to pick material that is light on the venom and innuendo and heavy on civil discourse.  I saw a Twilight Zone episode once where two aliens come down to Earth to abduct the greatest human in history...turns out the man in question was the world's biggest liar, but the aliens automatically believed everything he said, not possessing the capacity to discern truth from falsehood.  We can do better than that, and we can start by reading stuff that challenges us, not just whatever props up our prejudices... 

A Belated Happy 250th Birthday, Beethoven

On either the 15th or 16th of December, 1770, Ludwig van Beethoven, one of the greatest classical composers of all time, was born.  I listened the other evening on my phone to New York's classical music station WQXR as they were appropriately devoting their programming to his life and legacy during this celebration of his 250th birthday.  Beethoven's gradual loss of hearing, culminating in deafness, has always floored me: how could anyone like this compose something as complex and beautiful as his Ninth Symphony, along with the other late works of his career?  I've always loved that symphony, especially its second movement...which used to be played during the closing credits of the Huntley/Brinkley national news report on NBC during the 1960s when I was growing up.  I love listening to classical music, but at the same time usually feel a bit intimidated: I have no special musical training other then a brief period a few years ago when I took beginning piano.  There's a highly technical side of it all that completely escapes me...what I'm left with as a lay listener is the way the instruments interact during the particular piece's flow to impart feeling. Sometimes it's easy to "get" a classical work, as was the case with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Bach's 140th Cantata, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, and Debussy's Nocturnes...other times it's harder, as has been the case for me with some of the symphonies of Mozart, Haydn, and Mahler...and even some of Beethoven's.  In any event, I usually have my car radio on Gainesville's classical music station on 102.7...if you're in town why not give it a listen?