As I Age, Medical Interactions Increase

For the most part...until the last decade or so...I have lived my life relatively free of doctors, medications, hospitals and "procedures".  Never having suffered a serious enough illness or injury...not even a single broken bone...to be hospitalized other than inguinal hernia surgery in 1973 when I was 17, I tended to avoid anything resembling the medical establishment. After getting married I finally got around to visiting the doctor from time to time, but always breathed a sigh of relief when exiting the office.  But in late 2011, after visiting an after-hours clinic because of a sinus infection, the attending physician detected a heart murmur and strongly recommended I see my regular doctor about it. She in turn had me examined and it was discovered that not only did I have an aortic aneurism, but that I had a serious birth defect: a bicuspid (instead of the normal tricuspid) heart valve that was responsible over the years for the swollen aorta.  From 2012 through 2021 I underwent annual exams with a UF Health specialist surgeon to see if the aneurism had expanded: beyond a specified threshold he would recommend surgery. But the aneurism remained the same size even at the last exam this past April...still my physician decided I needed to undergo the surgery because my valve had a worsening calcium buildup.  On July 15 I underwent open heart surgery to replace the valve and repair the aneurism...successfully done although there was the complication of atrial fibrillation based on my heart's initial reaction to the operation. This was resolved with the Cardioversion procedure just before I was discharged from the hospital.  Recovery lasted several weeks, primarily to allow my sternum, sawed apart to allow access to my heart for the operation, to fuse back together..as well as strengthening my body, especially the upper part.  Still, at this point with me back at work for more than a month and exercising to the point of running at pretty much my pre-operational level (but more slowly), I am now entrenched in the medical system with two cardiologists, a thoracic surgeon, a gastroenterologist, potentially a urologist, and of course my primary physician, their office and examination appointments strung out into the future.  Besides issues related to my heart concerning continuing recovery and maintenance, there are three areas of my health/body unrelated to what I just went through that have to be addressed...groan!  I suppose this sort of thing just naturally happens when one gets to my age (65)...all kinds of screenings are recommended, usually to detect cancer in different parts of the body.  Well, I think I'm long finished with the part of my life when I avoided doctors and hospitals and pretty much freelanced it with my personal health.  The trick now is not to succumb to the temptation to "self-enfeeble" because of doctors' overactive concerns, while at the same time following the gist of their advice and availing myself of their prescriptions and procedures. I have a very strong instinct that a physically active lifestyle, to which I am accustomed, is important to both physical and mental health, regardless of my age, and I don't have any intention of fearfully tiptoeing through the remainder of my life...

Our Visit to the Charleston Tea Plantation (Garden) Last Month

On this past October 25th, the morning after driving in to Charleston, South Carolina from Asheville, North Carolina, Melissa and I decided to go west and explore two of the area's features: the Angel Oak Tree on John's Island (click HERE for my article) and the Charleston Tea Plantation, which seems to be in the process of being renamed Charleston Tea Garden most likely because "plantation" carries with it connotations of slavery.  In any event, we managed to get past the morning precipitation by the time we arrived there, beyond the aforementioned Tree and onto sparsely populated Wadmalaw Island.  The first thing you notice driving into the place are the rows upon rows of shortly and very evenly-cropped hedges of tea plants.  This is because the choice leaves are cut from branches grown past a certain height by a custom-designed harvester they call the Green Giant (which is in the above pics)...this machine drastically cuts down on the labor formerly needed to tend and harvest the plants.  We parked and went inside, just in time to go on their trolley tour around the farm, with the driver and a recorded tour guide giving out probably more information about tea farming history and its cultivation than I needed to know.  When we got back to the main gift shop area we sampled some of their teas, browsed around, and then went into the back on a walking tour of the facility's tea processing machines.  I hadn't been aware that different kinds of tea didn't necessarily grow on different types of tea plants, but were rather the products of different stages in processing.   At the end, we naturally bought some of their teas and left with a sense of tranquility from our visit...everyone there was friendly and obviously enjoyed their work.  During the tour it was claimed that this is the only substantial tea farm in the continental U.S. and that the site was selected because of the soil quality here as well as the location in a wet lowland area at this latitude.  Bigelow Tea Company now owns it...I enjoyed the experience but most definitely would have enjoyed it more if it were instead about my preferred drink, coffee...

Election for Gainesville City Commission At-Large Seat This Tuesday 11/16

This Tuesday, November 16 the Gainesville City Commission is holding its election to replace Gail Johnson for the At-Large Seat B, from which she resigned a few months ago.  Residents of Gainesville have the opportunity today (until 6 pm) to vote early, either at the Millhopper Library on NW 43rd Street or the Supervisor of Elections office on NW Main.  Both Melissa and I voted by mail-in ballot a few days ago.  I know this election is not for the presidency and has just a one item on the ballot, but I suggest that this is the perfect opportunity for anyone to get started with the self-discipline of consistent, informed voting.  I am sick and tired of people in my party (Democrats) complaining that the other side is robbing them of the right to vote when they themselves won't avail themselves of this right (which I regard as more of a RESPONSIBILITY)...after all, the previous commissioner, Gail Johnson, won with only an 11% voter turnout in this predominantly Democratic city. If you're perplexed as to why so many "blue" states have Republican majorities in their legislatures and even some Republican governors, the answer is partly due to the fact that conservative voters tend to display that self-discipline when those off-year elections come around while too many Democrats seem to be of the mindset that once a president in their own party is elected then that settles everything for the next four years...folks, that ain't how it works.  In Clinton's second year, 1994, and Obama's in 2010, Democratic voters sat on their hands and allowed the Republicans to win back the House of Representatives in Obama's case and both houses of Congress in Clinton's.  And in 2014, two years after Obama had been reelected, they stayed away from the polls again and let Mitch McConnell's party take control of the U.S. Senate, thereby enabling the new Senate Majority Leader to steal a Supreme Court seat by refusing to consider the duly-elected president's nominee, Merrick Garland.  But sadly, I expect more of the same ignorant complacency from my party in 2022...if there's anything I've learned over the past few years it's how precarious of a situation I am in with this "representative democracy" of ours, considering the gullibility and foolishness of much of the electorate: sometimes it feels like I'm on a runaway train with no one at the controls...

Just Watched the Movie Hamilton

Hamilton is a 2020 movie of the same-titled Broadway musical, filmed at its Richard Rogers Theatre on 46th Street in Midtown Manhattan, just a block or so from where I stayed at the Marriott Marquis while visiting with my family in 2010.  At that time we saw the Broadway production of South Pacific at the Lincoln Center...today it was Melissa, Will and I sitting in our living room watching my second Broadway play on our television screen, thanks to Disney Plus which carried it in their listings.  The first few minutes quickly knocked me off my feet with the diverse cast and fast-paced rap, music and action...at first I had to ask if this show was about the same Alexander Hamilton I knew from studying American history.  An immigrant from the Caribbean West Indies, Hamilton was a patriot during the American Revolutionary War and served under General George Washington, a role which would later lead to his appointment as the first president's Secretary of the Treasury.  Along the way he got to know others like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Aaron Burr...the Broadway play makes his relationship with Burr much more extensive than it apparently was in real life.  Those at all familiar with the real Hamilton know of the tragic end of his life, but I felt the show did an admirable job of presenting it and the aftermath...well, the ending was a real tearjerker!  It's a pretty long film at 2 hours and 40 minutes, so plan in advance some free time to watch it.  I felt that the music was incredible, and may be the first time ever that I had experienced rap on such a high artistic level...amazing.  Later on I read up on Hamilton and found the the Broadway play, which debuted in 2015 and won numerous awards, was not only coproduced by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who portrayed Alexander Hamilton, but he also wrote it and composed its music and lyrics: what an incredible, daunting accomplishment!  All of the acting was fantastic, but I especially appreciated that of Leslie Odom, Jr. as Aaron Burr.  If you're interested in history, then I would suggest this movie as a point of departure and not the final word on what really transpired.  I would rather have been there in person to see Hamilton performed live on stage, but still feel very privileged to have been able to experience this beautiful work of art even if only at home on a wide flat-screen TV.  Why not try it out for yourself?

Quote of the Week...from Alex Roe

Everyone deals with grief in their own way.                         ---Alex Roe

A couple of days ago, while in the midst of my own health issues, I was informed within the span of 24 hours that four dear, sweet people whom I personally knew had passed away. I would be saddened by any of these deaths, but four at one time?  And there are others in my life who are undergoing their own personal health crises right now...I'm not sure I'm liking this new trend, if trend is what it really is instead of an aberration. But as George Harrison titled his landmark 1970 album, all things must pass, and I knew a long time ago that all living beings will indeed pass from this world, including eventually all my loved ones and even myself. Still, knowing this doesn't make it hurt any less when it happens, especially at this level.  By the way, I picked the above quote by Alex Roe although I've yet to see any movie or show this young actor has been involved with...but he was right on target with his statement...

Just Finished Reading Billy Summers by Stephen King

In my reading I tend to use my public library system and check out the books.  With new releases from popular authors, this can take a while, though, and I had to wait several weeks before Stephen King's latest novel, Billy Summers, was available because of the large backlog of holds on it.  I was able to obtain it as an audiobook and read it while at work.  Billy Summers, naturally, is the story's protagonist and would fit the classification of an "antihero", that is someone who compels the reader's sympathy and loyalty but who is also involved in illegal or antisocial activity...you know, someone like Bonnie and Clyde, the Godfather or numerous characters Clint Eastwood has portrayed.  In Billy's case it's that he is a professional hitman, albeit one who only kills people he knows are bad...those hiring him are aware of this precondition and take care to let him know the full depravity of his next target.  He is met and driven to a mobster figure he's known and worked with to get his next assignment: another hitman, arrested on unrelated charges and who is threatening to turn state's evidence on some very important people.  They in turn want this dude vanquished before he can spill the beans, and so here's Billy Summers to solve the problem.  Convinced that the hitman is bad, Billy accepts the assignment and the story progresses from there, with him living for several months among others in a lower-middle class neighborhood and getting to know them more than he had intended.  There is a specific moment when Billy, whose value in the "trade" derives from his sharpshooting expertise at sniping, has to be at a certain window trained on a specific spot below.  That's all well and fine, but Billy...who has pretended to be a lot dumber than he really is...can put the pieces together and realizes that whoever put out the hit on the hitman would most likely want him eliminated as well to cover up the trail.  So he develops an elaborate escape plan involving a secret identity...how it all works out is something that you, the potential reader of this fine story, will have to discover for yourself.  I will say that King splits his narrative into two main sections: the ongoing hit job Billy is tackling and his earlier life, progressing from childhood through his military experiences in Iraq...and particularly "La-La-Fallujah"...as a sniper.  In the novel's second half the reader discovers that this story is a part of Stephen King's fictional universe as his earlier novel The Shining is indirectly referenced through the Overlook Hotel's burnt remains and another eerie phenomenon...I like King's propensity for doing this kind of thing.  And the novel's ending had a peculiar little twist to it, making the reader first think that it is going in one direction until the story's real conclusion is revealed.  I liked Billy Summers a lot and recommend it...Stephen King is my favorite author and this book just reinforces that sentiment...  

Weekly Short Stories: 1978 Science Fiction, Part 3

Today I examine three more science fiction short stories as they appeared in the anthology Donald A. Wollheim Presents The 1979 Annual World's Best SF, presenting the editor's choice of his favorites from 1978.  I was 21-22 at the time, struggling with difficult college classes and suffering from an overwhelming feeling of social alienation.  Nonetheless, I feel it was a time of personal growth and maturity, preparing me for what was to come in my life.  But enough of me, here are my reactions to those stories...

IN ALIEN FLESH by Gregory Benford

On a largely oceanic planet orbiting Zeta Reticuli dwells a huge, whale-like creature called the Drongheda.  It emits enormous quantities of mathematical images and insights, and a three-man expedition is there is record them...but first they have to enter the creature through a small opening.  Reginri, the protagonist, is reluctant for the mission but has been shamed into it by the other two, who had gone on earlier ones.  This time he experiences first-hand the flood of vivid imagery that the Drongheda produces, and it overwhelms him...it's not all mathematical after all.  The story begins with Reginri recovering on a neighboring planet with his wife and recalling it all...the ending reveals something about both the Drongheda's transmissions and human nature...

SQ by Ursula K. Le Guin

In this brief story society has "evolved" to the point where everyone has to undergo a examination to determine their sanity quotient, hence the title.  Before too long, the world's population becomes divided between the insane and the rest...and since there are so many crazies, then the sane remaining population is enlisted for the vast staff needed to care for them.  This leads to fewer and fewer people left to actually run the economy and provide for the rest.  This is obviously a clear case of literary satire and I got the message pretty much after the first page or two...

THE PERSISTENCE OF VISION by John Varley

Set about ten years ahead of the story's writing, Varley presents a world that has undergone at least one catastrophic nuclear disaster (in the Kansas area) and which has a violently fluctuating economy...it's on the downside now, late in the 1980s.  The protagonist, laid off from his financial urban job, has decided to hitchhike and experience the many communes of the American southwest.  He finally arrives at a stone wall-ringed establishment that is populated by deaf and mute people...these are the ones who were born that way to parents afflicted by the measles outbreak in 1964.  The story goes on to describe the commune's history, the protagonist's experiences in trying to communicate with them and assimilate, and where seeing and hearing children stand in relation to their parents in that peculiar society, where taboos are necessarily dispensed with and touching on many levels is developed to a level far transcending "normal" human communication.  The ending was intriguing and reminded me a little of my all-time favorite science fiction short story: Lewis Padgett's Mimsy Were the Borogoves from 1942...

Next week I finish my look at short science fiction from 1978...

Game of the Week: America Says

 

AMERICA SAYS is a TV game show specifically created for the cable station Game Show Network (on Channel 73 for Gainesville Cox Cable subscribers).  It's been around since 2018 and is hosted by John Michael Higgins.  The premise is simple enough: two four-person teams...not necessarily family like the similar show Family Feud...vie against each other for points and bonus round dollars as they fill in the blanks to phrases posed at-large in surveys taken of Americans for their most common answers.  You can see from the above game, with the contestant in the lower left corner, that "home run", "umpire", and "strike" have already been correctly guessed for those blanks on the puzzle screen...the remaining words are hinted at by the lengths of their blanks.  This is not a deliberately racy show with all kinds of dubious sexual references as is sadly the case with Steve Harvey's Family Feud, which I used to watch in the 1970s when Richard Dawson hosted it but now studiously avoid...I like Harvey and thinks he's a talented comedian, but his show has gone in the wrong direction with its emphasis.  On the other hand, I have yet to figure out the somewhat confusing rules on America Says, especially when it comes to team elimination and bonus rounds.  And like just about every game show out there, they spend too much time trying to establish personal rapport with the often very uninteresting guests by asking questions prompted, no doubt, by the questionnaires they filled out beforehand...groan.  No, I can do without all that: what I like is simply competing against the contestants to see if I can't fill in all the blanks.  Another thing making America Says superior to Family Feud is that the puzzle survey is not of the studio audience, with potentially oddball responses, but rather is more likely to be representative of how people really think.  On the other hand, I do like that Family Feud bonus round more...just let me skip the rest of the show.  When I see America Says with all its surveys about often inane topics, it gives me pause as to why there isn't a news cable channel somewhere out there whose only function is to poll the population with pertinent questions about relevant issues affecting Americans today, without any built-in ideological spin...kind of like a Gallop or Harris Poll Channel.  Such a channel would demand a response from our often intransigent politicians when their votes and policies directly contradict the people's will.  But I get it: fat chance of that ever happening...instead we get partisan, biased news channels with their partisan, biased viewership participating in meaningless surveys...

Just Finished Reading A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

A Princess of Mars was a serialized 1912 science fiction/fantasy pulp fiction novel by Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs, the first of his Mars series...this story's hero is John Carter, an ex-Confederate soldier at the close of the American Civil War who has gone to the Southwest to search for gold with his friend.  Wary of the warlike Apaches, who claim the same ground on which they prospect, one day they discover their object...and his friend leaves to set up the gold's delivery and payment, only to be killed by pursuing Apaches.  Upon this tragic discovery, Carter finds himself pursued as well and hides in a cave...the enemy find him, though, and the life-or-death battle ensues.  But just before that happens, he has stood outside the cave and observed the planet Mars, musing upon it.  Back in the cave, Carter is now dying...but he wakes up mysteriously transported to the Red Planet, which as it turns out is populated by intelligent humanoids divided into different bellicose races, mainly the vicious greens with multiple appendages and the reds, who seem more to represent the original civilization.  They are at war with each other, and John Carter first encounters the aggressive greens, who are impressed by his superhuman strength, speed and jumping ability in the thinner Martian atmosphere.  They intercept a crashing ship of their red enemies and capture their princess...naturally, Carter protects her and falls in love.  Then all sorts of intrigues and bloodshed ensue...

This novel was said to inspire Carl Sagan as a kid to explore the field of astronomy...since I'm now 65 after first reading it I can make no such claim, but when I was seven my father introduced me to the night sky with its constellations and general principles of celestial motion, which I gleaned from the handbooks he gave me.  I read A Princess of Mars on my friend and former colleague Becky's recommendation as it was a childhood favorite of hers.  What impressed me the most about it was how the author got around the difficulties of space travel and, instead, made the protagonist have to die on Earth in order to be transported to Mars.  The ending had a kind of C.S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia feel to it...since Burroughs' work predates that of Lewis by decades, I wonder whether the latter got some of his ideas from the earlier writer. I understand that this story was made into a feature-length film a few years ago, but I'm a little hesitant to watch it since much of the book's charm derives from John Carter's first-person narration and his compelling introspection, which I fear may be a little bit too difficult to effectively transfer to the big screen...

Great Old TV Episodes...from The Twilight Zone

FOUR O'CLOCK  was a Season Three episode of one of my all-time favorite series, Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone.  It first aired in April of 1962, but nearly sixty years later is more relevant than ever.  Starring Theodore Bikel as the hate-mongering, angry "man of justice" Oliver Crangle, the episode examines the mental makeup of people who make it their business to mind that of others while spinning a fantasy world of conspiracy everywhere around themselves.  Crangle, holed-up in his big city apartment with his obnoxious parrot Pete, has built up an extensive file system of papers and cards giving him detailed personal information on everyone he knows...and to Crangle, they are mostly evil.  On his self-imagined mission to do good, he calls different people's employers to expose their "evilness" and get them fired or otherwise punished...the seed of the cancel culture around us today, except that now the Internet replaces Crangle's filing system from which to draw accusatory information.  He finally comes up with a demented notion: at 4:00 pm he will have all the evil people in the world turn to two feet tall!  Calling an FBI agent to give him advance notice so that the agents can start their sweep of arrests, he is rebuffed as a mentally disturbed crank...but Oliver knows better: that agent has to be one of the evil conspirators!  The episode's ending is pure poetic justice, but I wonder whether even at this late juncture he ever was willing to come to terms with what he was all about.  Four O'Clock hit home to me in 2021, not only with its cancel culture ramifications but also with the demented, fantasy conspiratorialism prevalent in Crangle's mind and in that of millions of my fellow citizens today...the QAnon, Stop the Steal, "faked" mass shootings and pandemic denial movements stand out.  And what about the ghouls who seem bent on spending their hours going back through public figures' old social media posts and decades-old innuendoes in order to smear their reputations? So in a way this episode was a prophetic indictment against both politically left-wing excesses like cancel culture and predominantly right-wing crackpot notions.  Even before all this nonsense started to go down around us, I appreciated Bikel's great performance in this episode of a self-righteous meddler with no inner peace or ability to empathize...I think you will as well...

Hooray to Atlanta Braves, 2021 World Series Champs

Last Tuesday evening the Atlanta Braves won their first baseball World Series since 1995, beating the Houston Astros 7-0 to seal victory, 4 games to 2.  Years before the state of Florida got its own Major League Baseball franchises, I was rooting for Atlanta going back to 1979, when I would watch the then-last place team's games on "Superstation" TBS, which for years back then carried Atlanta's entire season. The following year they hired as manager Joe Torre, who brought them to a higher caliber of play...the high point was them making the playoffs in 1982 with stars like Dale Murphy, Bob Horner, Chris Chambliss, Claudell Washington, Phil Niekro, and Rick Camp.  Later on in the 1990s and 2000s their strong starting pitching, led by Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Greg Maddox...with Chipper Jones providing consistent hitting among others...gave them a long string of divisional championships, but only one world title.  Interestingly, in the same era their divisional (and geographic) rival Florida Marlins won two World Series as a wild card team in 1997 and 2003.  This year, after Tampa Bay made an unexpected early exit from the playoffs against Boston, I had been looking to the Braves as my favorite surviving team. Others' expectation for them were low: of the 10 teams making it to this year's playoffs, Atlanta had the worst regular season record at 88-73.  But it's all a matter of who's hot at the right time, and who can pull off those difficult victories in close games. Hooray, Atlanta!

Quote of the Week...from Ralph Waldo Emerson

Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.            --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a 19th century American philosopher and essayist, a proponent of transcendentalism, which he presented in his essay Nature...I haven't read any of his works, only picking up the above quote on my Music Choice Soundscapes TV channel. Emerson clearly was an advocate of folks getting off their butts and getting outside and active, and I have to admit that he had a point here.  When I look back on my life, some of the happiest times were when I was in the great outdoors, be it running long courses or riding my bicycle or experiencing the beach or hiking down a wooded trail or eating outside or climbing a tree or taking a walk in the neighborhood or riding a theme park roller coaster or star-gazing or just sitting out on my porch.  That having been said, until just recently the weather here in northern Florida has been nothing short of awful, with heat and mugginess defining the conditions.  Once it finally began to cool and dry up a bit, I enjoyed outdoor activities once again.  But yesterday, although it was pleasantly cool early on, the humidity was way too high, and today (and tomorrow) rain and storms will prevail.  So sure, Ralph, I'll live in the sunshine (when the sun is out), swim the sea (when there aren't sharks, jellyfish or rip currents), and drink the wild air (when there aren't forest fires, hurricanes, tornadoes or sand/dust storms).  Come to think of it, on this rainy, slushy morning the idea of just hunkering down here within the secure confines of my house sounds pretty appealing...

The Majestic Angel Oak Tree West of Charleston, South Carolina

During our vacation in late October, Melissa and I stopped off for three nights at Charleston, South Carolina...it's the first time either of us had set foot in that state although both of us were born in adjacent Georgia.  My brother-in-law Jim, who went to college in South Carolina, recommended we visit the Angel Oak Tree, which stands a few miles west of Charleston, on Johns Island and accessible via Route 700, Maybank Highway.  So we did just that, after a tour through a tea farm further down the road.  The tree is spectacular, with its main truck 28 feet in circumference, rising more than 60 feet with some branches extending far beyond 150 feet...many of them lie on the ground.  Seeing it up close brought me back to my old tree-climbing days when I was ten (in 1967) and it didn't take long for me to see that, were tree-climbing not prohibited here, all I would need to do is gradually climb up one of the many grounded branches, many thicker than most tree trunks'.  After reading up on the tree, estimated to be 400-500 years old, I ran across an impressive video made by Dayvee Sutton...she makes the case that lynching of blacks most probably occurred here in the past, casting a shadow on its majesty: click HERE to watch it.  Of course, the park's gift shop was all about the tree itself, and I bought a handy-dandy coffee mug depicting it, along with taking a number of pictures.  After the visit we drove down the road and around the corner, lunching at an excellent little establishment called Blackbird Market...I had a half-rack of fried ribs with a special sauce.  If you're traveling around the area, I suggest the Angel Oak as one of your stops...

Weekly Short Stories: 1978 Science Fiction, Part 2

Today I continue my examination of old science fiction short stories with this second installment from 1978, using the retroactive anthology Donald A. Wollheim Presents The 1979 Annual World's Best SF, presenting the editor's choices for the previous year's works.  1978 was somber, sad and a little scary regarding the news...especially with the Jonestown Massacre that November.  More than 900 people either committed cyanide poisoning or were thus murdered when People' Temple cult leader Jim Jones made that call following the shooting death of a congressman investigating allegations at their remote site in western Guyana.  I remember cult members who weren't there afterwards acting in complete denial of the chain of tragic events and their leader's culpability...it's scary because I'm now experiencing much of the same with those who idolize former president Trump and can see no wrong in him.  But back to those stories...

DANCE BAND ON THE TITANIC by Jack L. Chalker

The first-person narrator of this story is man with a recent tragic family past.  He signs on as a crewman on a ferry taking off from a very obscure port in Maine and traveling to one in Canada...but the maps don't even show it exists.  On the boat business is brisk, but the passengers, dressed and speaking from all parts of the world and different time periods, seem to shimmer and flit in and out of reality.  On different voyages a young woman passenger commits suicide by hurling herself over the rails into the boat's workings...can he catch her on her next attempt and stop the tragic cycle?  Yes, this story messes with your mind...the Twilight Zone episode Mirror Image has a similar "alternative universe" feel to it...

CASSANDRA by C.J. Cherryh

Reminiscent of another old Twilight Zone episode, The Purple Testament, a young woman, thought by others to be insane, cannot help but see the future in the world around herself...and it is full of apocalyptic destruction and death.  This brief tale has her going about her mundane daily existence while surrounded by fires, crumbling buildings, and wraith-like people doomed in the impending war.  But then she encounters a "normal" young man at the diner she frequents...can he be her salvation from all this? Don't bet on it...

Next week: more 1978 sci-fi short story reviews...

Game of the Week: Quidditch

Quidditch...at least in the beginning...was a magical sport created by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling as a counterpart to the predominant English sports of soccer and rugby.  In the series' first book, The Sorcerer's Stone, young Potter finds himself unexpectedly pushed into being on the Gryffindor House team at Hogwarts Academy after a professor discovers his broom-flying and catching skills while in a tussle with his arch-foe Draco Malfoy.  In Chapter 11, team captain Oliver Wood brings the Quidditch equipment and gives Harry the low-down on the game and how it's played and scored.  There are four types of players: Keeper, Chasers, Beaters, and Seeker...along with three "balls": Quaffle, Bludgers, and Golden Snitch.  All while flying around on broomsticks, of course, the Chasers on each side try to throw the Quaffle through one of the three-ringed goals guarded by the opposing team's Keeper.  The Beaters have the job of protecting their teammates from Bludgers, which aim themselves at players to disrupt them.  And the Seeker has but one job: find the small, elusive flying Snitch and catch it...once that's done the game's over.  Teams get 10 points for their Quaffle goals, but since the side that catches the Snitch gets an extra 150, it's the Seeker who almost always decides the contest. Naturally, it's for the central, crucial role of Seeker for which our young hero is selected.  In the earlier books, Quidditch is an integral part of the story line, but as the epic conflict between Harry Potter and evil dark lord Voldemort increases in intensity and emphasis, then so decreases the significance and presence of this wizards' sport...the peak was probably at the beginning of the fourth book, The Goblet of Fire, when the Quidditch World Cup is held between Ireland and Bulgaria.  In real-life there is a "muggle" Quidditch version played on a field with certain necessary rule alterations...they've gone so far as to have an "official" Quidditch governing body along with a World Cup and Premier League.  Not that I'm interested in any of that fake stuff, though...I'll just "stick" with Rowling's "real" version.  By the way, although I am often critical of screen adaptations of books I've read, I was very impressed with how the Harry Potter movies vividly showed Quidditch matches...

My October, 2021 Running and Walking Report

For October I ran a total of 85 miles and walked 92.  I managed to get running time in on all but one day, and my mileage was typically composed of short runs spread out over the course of each day. My longest single run for the month was 2.8 miles, a vacation jaunt from my hotel to the Daytona Beach Pier and back three days ago.  I'm looking forward to improving and keeping up with both my running and walking, but it's been a pretty gradual overall process in the months following my July surgery.  The next race I run will probably be one of the weekly Saturday morning 5K Depot Parkruns held at Gainesville's Depot Park just south of downtown, most likely sometime late in November.  In my training right now, only the distance I cover matters, not how fast I run it... 

Great Old TV Episodes...from Everybody Loves Raymond

 

RECOVERING PESSIMIST is a Season One episode of the sitcom series Everybody Loves Raymond, first airing in 1997.  I myself had never taken to this series although Melissa liked it and my mother had meticulously taped every episode she saw, stacks of labeled VHS tapes lining the wall in her Hollywood, Florida  home.  The other night we had the television tuned in to TV Land, and they were showing a sequence of Raymond episodes...including the one I'm featuring.  In this episode Ray (Ray Romano) is nominated for Sports Writer of the Year, but his habitual pessimism warns him not to even bother attending the awards banquet...his wife Debra (played by Patricia Heaton) coaxes him into showing up anyway.  Although all that is happening seems to contradict Ray's negative frame of mind toward everything, he refuses to relent until Debra finally convinces him to adopt a more positive, optimistic attitude.  Ray then goes next door to present his new, shinier outlook to his mother, father, and brother...and then gets a big dose of why he had become such a pessimist in the first place.  Although there are probably a few funnier episodes in this nine-year series, I picked this one because of Ray's negative next-door experience with his childhood family.  For myself, I've noticed in a number of diverse social situations over the years where I would enter them with a very upbeat, optimistic mindset only to be practically knocked off my feet by the overwhelmingly dark, oppressive atmosphere around me.  And it's true: if you have spent a great deal of your early life surrounded by others hell-bent on spinning the events of their lives and others' in derisive, angry or frightened terms, then like Ray in this hilarious episode you'll possibly adopt a similar attitude.  By the way, my favorite character in Everybody Loves Raymond is Ray's policeman brother Robert, superbly portrayed by Brad Garrett...

Back Home Today from Vacation Outings

Melissa and I just got back into Gainesville from our ten-day vacation trips to the two Carolinas and Daytona Beach.  First we stayed in Asheville, North Carolina, partaking of the area's very hilly ambiance and some local attractions.  Then we drove down to Charleston, South Carolina, staying there three nights and then to Daytona Beach to close it all out.  In the next couple of weeks or so, I will mention some of the places we went and my reactions to them.  We both greatly enjoyed the trip, but are also very glad to be back at home...

Quote of the Week...from John Maxwell

Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.                         ---John Maxwell

John Maxwell is a popular motivational speaker and writer, focusing on what it takes to be an effective leader.  Like many others in his trade, he has a knack for coming up with one-liner quotes that put things into a more positive, constructive framework...the above one is a good example.  The more commonly-used phrase, of course, is Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. In Maxwell's rephrasing, he cleverly renders "losing" equivalent to "learning"...not that you can't learn a bit from victorious experiences as well.  But to a lot of people, sadly, coming up short in anything is so deflating and humiliating that they would rather not undertake any venture that, naturally, would expose them as not being perfect.  And perfectionism in this regard is the "perfect" way to ensure that the more realistic, farther-range goals of competency and expertise will never be achieved.  I always felt that the grading system in my school years had an inbuilt flaw in that a student's progress in class was negatively skewed by overemphasizing their errors...in my opinion there should have been a two-tiered system whereby a paper, presentation or test/quiz, once corrected, would be repeated with only that second score recorded as the final grade. But that's just me...those kids who regarded school work as a crucial judgment on their own worth...either to others or themselves...would likely disagree, as would most of the teachers whose classes I suffered through over the years.  But I'm no longer a student and am free to lose learn with impunity...no one's keeping score anymore. Now getting something right should be properly recognized and rewarded, whether it's academic, athletic, altruistic, relational, financial, or another area of endeavor.  But to get to that point, folks just need to exercise a little humility and allow themselves to screw up and learn from those mistakes.  As Frank Sinatra once said, "Dare to wear the foolish clown's face"...

Interesting Sky Yesterday, Severe Storms Today

Sometimes you step outside and the sky looks dramatic...even scary...as the sunlight reflects off certain cloud formations.  Early yesterday evening was a case in point (see the photo)...nothing really to be concerned about, and the setting sun soon took away the spectacular colors.  Today a severe cold front storm formation is sweeping through north and central Florida, hitting the Gainesville area in the morning hours and later passing through the east coast...prompting a "3" level tornado advisory for much of the area.  Personally, I kind of like stormy weather...that is, if I don't have to be outside in the middle of it, get flooded out, suffer wind damage, or lose my electricity and Internet: maybe I don't like it that much after all...

Weekly Short Stories: 1978 Science Fiction, Part 1

This week I begin looking at science fiction short stories from 1978, as presented in the following year's anthology Donald A. Wollheim Presents The 1979 Annual World's Best SF.  I spent almost all of '78 at the University of Florida and, probably more than any other time, formulated much of the philosophy of life and worldview that I have held up to today.  Besides drinking a copious volume of coffee then, I also walked an incredible number of miles, especially at night...which partially explains why my "song of the year" was The Sweet's Love is Like Oxygen, with the line, "I walk the streets at night, to be hidden by the city light".  But back to this article's topic: here are my reactions to the book's first two stories...  

COME TO THE PARTY by Frank Herbert and F.M. Busby

The folly of humanity with its supposed highly advanced technology and insights into what's best for life forms it is far from comprehending gets the spotlight in this often funny story set on a distant planet, dominated by one species (the Alexii) which preys upon another (the Delfans with their four sexes and peculiar mating ritual).  Treating the former as savage beasts that must be stockaded to protect what they perceive as the more civilized and intelligent Delfans, the humans leave a system in place that they think will control the Alexii while keeping the Delfan population steady, governed by a single robot they leave behind.  But all goes askew, with much greater consequences than anticipated.  I liked how the story mushroomed at the end... 

CREATOR by David Lake

This is another one of those banal stories that reframe religion as something imposed on humanity by external alien beings and technology...ho-hum.  On a planet named Olympus, a citizen named Jay Crystal has just had his new creation machine...called a creatron...installed and he's gung-ho about creating his own personal universe on it.  Advised by his friend Sam Harriman, Jay realizes that the only species that survive to develop and evolve intelligence and civilization are the cruelest and most violent...he makes sure that the special humanoids he's most interested in have plenty of that.  Our ancient history gets progressively referenced as Jay observes it...and then he decides to press a forbidden button on his machine that allows himself to fully participate in it as one of them.  Look closely at his name and see what I mean about this story being banal...

Next week: more sci-fi short stories reviews from the year 1978...

Game of the Week: Split (Not the Card Game)

When I was 9 years old in the fourth grade back in the first year's existence of Nova Blanche Forman Elementary School in Davie, Florida, the kids in my class were adept at creating different games...usually played by either the boys or girls, but not both.  There was a lot of complex patty-cake hand-clapping gaming among the girls back then while the boys came up with their own diversions...one of these was the peculiar-looking game of Split.  Split was always played outside on the ground (not asphalt or pavement) for obvious reasons: it involved throwing a pencil (or pen or any sharpened stick) down so that it would stick in the dirt.  The two players stand facing each other, initially their legs straight down, and then take turns throwing the pencil into the ground to the left or right of their opponent's feet.  Then the opponent has to stretch out  his nearest foot to touch the embedded pencil, pick it up, and likewise throw it into the ground on his adversary's side.  After a few throws, the game's title becomes apparent as both players are struggling to maintain their balance with their feet increasingly split more and more apart...one player wins when the other either can no longer stand straight or if his throw bounces off the ground instead of sticking in it.  At one time that year (~1965-66) the schoolyard before classes, after them, and during recess would be full of paired-off boys playing this interesting game.  The funny thing is that after that period, I never saw anyone play Split again, and after doing a search on the Internet have failed to remotely find any reference to it, only to a card game with the same name.  Maybe it more commonly goes by a different name.  Have you ever heard of anything like this?

About Old Elementary School Classroom Pictures

I like to look at old class pictures, and they don't necessarily have to include me in them.  This is especially true with elementary school, in particular the 4th through 6th grade pictures taken at Nova Blanche Forman Elementary School in Davie, Florida.  For my 1st through 3rd grade years I attended Boulevard Heights Elementary in West Hollywood...just a couple of blocks from my home.  In those years the kids in a particular grade were divided into a few separate classrooms with teachers...and they stayed in those classrooms the whole school year, apart from students in other classrooms in their same year.  When I got to Nova Elementary in 1965, it was a completely different situation. There the 4th graders were assigned to Suite C, comprising five "home stations" (classrooms) and the 6th graders were in Suite B, split among six home stations.  The 5th graders were rather arbitrarily divided between Suites B and C.  Now the home station was where I would meet with the other assigned classmates at the start of the school day and its end, but in between the students of the entire suite would mix in various classes, so I ended up getting to know quite a lot of them within a relatively short time.  But our yearly class picture was always of those kids in the same home station.  Since my parents were responsible for deciding, year-to-year, whether to purchase classroom pictures, I was fortunate to get my 4th grade picture from home station #7 with Miss Kidder as the teacher, but for the 5th and 6th grades, which I spent at home station #18 in Suite D (renamed from Suite B) with Mrs. Williams as the presiding teacher, we didn't buy the class pictures...I believe that in one or both of these years I was out sick when they were taken.  But since the kids in a particular suite pretty much got to know one another over the course of a school year, any of the other home stations' class pictures were fun to examine...as I have recently on a Facebook Nova alumni group page.  Marjorie, with whom I went to Nova from the 4th through 12th grades, put up her 4th grade class photo (Mrs. Jenkins, Station #9), 5th grade (Mr. Boyle, Station #13), and 6th grade (Ms. Bryant (I don't remember her), Station #16).  And Alan, another classmate with whom I attended through those same years, posted his class's picture from the 6th grade (Mr. Niedermeyer, Station #17).  And although he attended the "second" Nova Elementary School and not the "original" one I was at, I appreciated someone else's classroom photo as well since it included many kids who later attended Nova Junior and Senior High with me.  A few years ago I posted on this blog my old 4th grade picture...I'm seated in the back/left next to my friend Eddie Simmons: click HERE for a link to it.  One thing about these classroom pictures that bugs me, though, is that if you don't remember the name of a particular student then since they're not identified there's no way of knowing who they are...there were several of these in Marjorie and Alan's pictures. What's really frustrating is when I distinctly remember them by their faces but still can't name them.  Ah, nothing like a mystery demanding to be solved... 

Great Old TV Episodes...from the Andy Griffith Show

 

DOGS, DOGS, DOGS, from the comedy classic Andy Griffith Show, was first broadcast during its third season in April, 1963. A slew of friendly dogs of all shapes and sizes has descended on the Mayberry courthouse, and Andy and Barney have to figure out what to do with them before the man from Raleigh arrives to assess their request for extra funding.  While Andy is out, Barney has an idea and takes the dogs miles away to an open field, releases them and drives back, smug in his own ingenuity.  But as a severe thunderstorm approaches and Andy and Barney are sitting there in the courthouse...along with Andy's very concerned little boy Opie...Barney goes off on a guilty soliloquy about how dogs are naturally built for withstanding heavy rain and lightning while looking out for each other, unlike giraffes, "But dogs are short and they take care of their own...giraffes don't, no, giraffes don't at all. Boy, giraffes are selfish! They just run around looking after Number One, getting hit by lightning...but dogs..."  Don't worry: everybody, including the dogs, ends up safe and sound with a typically happy ending.  But Barney's few seconds of rationalizing has to stand as one of the high, sidesplitting moments of the entire series...it's a shame that Don Knotts, who played him, decided to leave the series a couple of years later...

Still More Jigsaw Puzzles

 

I've gone through three more jigsaw puzzles recently...all of them were fun and interesting.  I have become more selective about the brand of puzzle I will work on: the pieces need to be cut into shapes that don't invite mistaken pieces put together when they are both the same color and without a pattern...all of the above puzzles fit the bill perfectly.  The bottom one, showing a beach scene from inside a cottage, was a 1000-piece puzzle that challenged me space-wise: I had just enough room on the tabletop to fit the completed puzzle, but I had to set different groups of similar pieces aside in bowls while I worked on the rest...just so that I could fit enough of it on the table.  But this new system may well open the way for me to do perhaps 2000-piece puzzles as well...all I have to do is ensure that the specified dimensions of the final completed picture fit the tabletop while I pre-separate most of the pieces by color and/or pattern, working on one bowl at a time...

Quote of the Week...from Dr. Seuss

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient of living.

                                                                                                      ---Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss, the pen name of Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904-91), was responsible for much happiness in my childhood of the early 1960s...I regularly checked out his funny books from my elementary school library and wasn't the only one who thought his stuff was the best: my favorite Seuss book was easily The Cat in the Hat, which I was happy to relive through the excellent Cat in the Hat ride a few years ago at Universal Islands of Adventure/Orlando. And regarding television adaptations, is there anything better than the animated half-hour version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas? Well, if the good doctor is right with his above quote, then I must have very attentive, alert brain cells.  For it seems I've spent a great portion of my life bent toward nonsense and fantasy...much of it through Walter Mitty-like daydreaming.  And I have always felt a special bond with fantasy fiction, both the kind that emphasizes kids with special magical talents and that focused on medieval-like societies with archetypical hero types and epic conflicts. But having made my own case of plunging into the world of make-believe, I feel the need to establish one crucial caveat: I always KNEW it was make-believe, never succumbing to any potential temptation to believe that any of it was real.  And that's what I'm seeing others doing with preposterous conspiracy theories and a fantasized reframing of reality pitting the all-good guys against the all-bad guys as if it is all an apocalyptic war between followers of Sauron and Gandalf.  Hey, I like a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy, but when the day is done it's just a dumb-ass conspiracy theory and I'd be a dumb-ass to believe it...

Just Finished Reading Lev Grossman's The Magicians Series (for 3rd Time)

Earlier this century Gainesville was fortunate to have a great bookstore: Borders, on Newberry Road just west of the Oaks Mall...sadly it closed although DSW, a large shoe store which replaced it, is pretty good in its own right...but I digress.  One day I was browsing the store and came across a slick-looking paperback novel, The Magicians by Lev Grossman.  At the time J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series was nearing the end of its fantastic run and I was into this genre of fantasy literature.  I read that first book of three in the series and became an instant fan. The protagonist, Quentin Coldwater, is a young man just graduated from high school and applying to different colleges.  Socially inept and awkward, he is an academic genius and is looking forward to the more competitive world of college.  Quentin is also prone to fantasy and daydreaming, and has never gotten over his childhood fantasy series Fillory, still going back to the old books to reread.  Julia, whom Quentin has futilely adored for years, accompanies him with her boyfriend Steve for a college interview. When they discover the interviewer is dead the journey for Quentin through the rabbit hole of magic begins...as it also does for Julia in her own way. The novel...and ultimately the series...deals with the lives and struggles of Quentin and Julia, the former within the "official" academic setting of Brakebills Academy for training as a magician and the latter on the craft's outskirts, going from one secret place to another where skills are developed and contacts made.  Along with this are the other people in their lives as well as the magical land of Fillory, which turns out to be very real, no fantasy at all.  I've looked back on the series...now having just finished reading it for a third time...and have concluded that not only were the story line and characters well developed and compelling, but I dug Grossman's general writing style as well.  There is a lot of humor in this trilogy, and much of what happens to the characters is reflected in their personal growth over time.  I contrast this with what I've seen in the first two episodes of the SyFy Channel's television adaptation of The Magicians: wildly divergent story lines and characters' personalities, and with virtually no humor at all to be seen anywhere...very disappointing!  On TV, the bigshots all seem to think of Quentin as "The One" like Harry Potter or Neo in The Matrix, around whom the success or failure of everything rides...the books were nothing like this.  Also, I got tired in a hurry of Quentin being portrayed as mentally ill instead of simply being very unhappy with his life and the world. Apparently, though, a lot of viewers have taken to the television series, but I suspect few of them have ever bothered to pick up the books.  If they had, I believe their conclusions about it all might be vastly different...

Weekly Short Stories: 1977 Science Fiction, Part 4

Today I finish examining some of the best science fiction short stories from 1977, as presented in Donald A. Wollheim's anthology The 1978 Annual World's Best SF, providing his choices from the previous year.  Enrolling in the University of Florida that fall was a major culture shock to me and a letdown as the teaching level there was far behind the more engaging level I received in community college...you might have thought the reverse would be true.  Still, I have fond memories of this time...especially of the Reitz Student Union, Library East and old Weil Hall (across from the football stadium), site of the then-much more primitive, massive computers with their punched cards and miles upon miles of printed paper readouts with frustrating error messages: that's what taking computer classes back then was all about.  And now I will reflect on the final three stories in Wollheim's book...

EYES OF AMBER by Joan D. Vinge

On Saturn's moon Titan, although the atmosphere is totally poisonous for Earth-based life, probes have discovered that this world with a completely different chemistry hosts its own life, including intelligent beings...but how does one communicate with them?  A linguistics expert uses a landed probe to establish contact with a woman assassin there as she regards the new presence as her "demon" with its many "eyes of amber".  Meanwhile on Earth, the man in charge of the mission wants to make it all a public spectacle in order to attract interest (and more funding), much to the linguist's chagrin.  It kind of reminded me how the moon missions of the early 1970s were hyped and designed in order to jimmy up flagging public interest...

CHILD OF THE SUN by James E. Gunn

Johnson is a time traveler from a disaster-ridden future he wants to change, but he loses his memory at the beginning of each mission and relies on a tape recording that he had earlier made for himself.  In this story, he must find the kidnapped daughter of a solar energy research administrator...the girl is destined to grow up to revolutionize science in a positive way, but first she must be rescued.  This kind of circular time travel tale reminded me of two things: the television series Quantum Leap that pursued a similar theme, and Robert Heinlein's great old stories about this topic that have a circular, repeating aspect to them...

BROTHER by Clifford Simak

Edward Lambert, an elderly man living isolated in the rural northeast, is a naturalist and author.  He often thinks of his identical twin brother Phil, who in his youth left the family farm to join the many seeking adventure in space travel.  Over the years Phil would briefly return and then go back to his chosen profession.  After many years of not seeing his brother, a professor visits Edward and tells him that there is no record of him ever having a brother.  So what gives?  The resolution of the apparent contradiction at the story's end was unexpected, and also reminded me of another: Stephen King's novel The Dark Half.  Simak may well be my favorite science fiction author, and I have read him from childhood...

Next week I begin my look at science fiction short stories from 1978...

Game of the Week: Bowling

I am hardly an avid bowler...probably has something to do with the fact that I'm not very good at it.  The first time I went to a bowling alley was back in 1968, with my seventh-grade physical education class.  Although I received little instruction on how to play the game, I did learn the arcane method of scoring in bowling.  My first game had me bowl a 33...I believe before those school outings ended I got my score up into the upper 70s.  As an adult I've bowled on a number of occasions around Gainesville and Leesburg, the latter with its shorted-out neon sign "LEESBURG OWL" being the site of my personal high game: 177, back around thirty years ago.  Since 2017 when I suffered some nerve damage interfering with the bending of my right thumb, I haven't tried the sport...who knows, maybe my impediment wouldn't affect my game.  Easily the most annoying thing about bowling is the requirement to rent out old shoes that others have worn...and worn...and worn.  This must be the only situation in life where you actually shell out money in order to put on strange, smelly used shoes.  Regarding the actual aiming and release of the ball, I know that the better bowlers put a good spin on it and make it follow a curved path, hitting the head pin at an angle and causing a cascade of falling pins that often leads to strikes...but I've only been slightly successful with my own efforts.  Instead, although I do spin the bowl a little my focus is aiming it at the pins...with predictably mixed results.  Oh well, although I have seen others bowl by themselves, for me it's a social activity that I have shared with classmates, friends, and family... and that has made it worthwhile, crappy shoes and all...

Nearby Starbucks (Again) Reopens Indoor Seating

This past Thursday I went to my favorite Starbucks in northern Gainesville, only to discover that they had reopened the indoor seating...awesome.  I went up to the counter, picked up my decaf iced caffè americano that I had ordered online...and then proceeded outdoors to sit.  Although I've had both Covid Pfizer vaccines earlier in the year and my booster shot a week ago (along with my annual flu vaccine), I'm still a little uncomfortable in cramped public spaces... but I think it'll get better in time.  I'm still confounded by the widespread refusal of millions to get vaccinated and greatly dismayed by supposed role models Kyrie Irving and Eric Clapton for steadfastly opposing it in a public way...I'm not surprised that Ted Nugent is also on the wrong side of the issue. It looks like, though, that the coronavirus's Delta variant has run most of its course through the unvaccinated "community", killing and debilitating so, so many: what a tragic, COMPLETELY AVOIDABLE waste! Well, humanity is never short of foolish beliefs and behavior...what kind of idiocy will we see next? I don't imagine the wait will be long...

Great Old TV Episodes...from the Avengers

DEATH'S DOOR, from the British spy/sleuth series The Avengers...starring Patrick Macnee (playing John Steed) and Diana Rigg (Emma Peel)...first aired in October, 1967 and I was right there, watching it in our living room that evening. A high-level, crucial conference with international implications is about to be held, but the man responsible for hosting it and holding the various parties together panics and flees as he approaches the conference door just before it begins.  Steed and Peel are enlisted to investigate the trouble, and it appears that the man has had a prophetic dream of the day at hand, with numerous small incidents coinciding with both dream and actual occurrence.  At the end of the dream, he is grabbed and forced through the conference door (see above picture) and, once entering, is killed by a falling chandelier...hence the panic in real life.  Of course, our heroes figure out the mystery, catch the bad guys and set everything straight...in their typically elegant, clever and witty fashion.  What stood out to me in this episode was the dream sequence, very reminiscent of that experienced by Gregory Peck's character in the classic 1948 thriller Spellbound.  But when I first saw Death's Door, I had only just turned eleven and it wouldn't be for a few more years before I got around to seeing the earlier movie. For special effects alone with the dream sequence I recommend this episode, but then again Macnee and Rigg were fantastic in every one of the Avengers episodes during this period.  I should know: I ended up buying their entire box set on DVD...

Major League Baseball League Championship Series Underway

In Major League Baseball I was greatly disappointed that the Tampa Bay Rays lost their opening-round series against Boston three games to one, with two very close games at the end deciding it.  Now the Red Sox have begun their American League Championship Series against the Houston Astros...I'm rooting for Boston now but yesterday they lost their opening game 5-4.  This afternoon that series will continue, shown on FoxSports1 (Gainesville Cox Channel 62), while in the evening TBS (Channel 67) will show the opening contest of the National League Championship Series between the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers.  Although I was happy to see Atlanta defeat the Milwaukee Brewers in their series to get this far, it was tough seeing how poor umpiring wrecked any chances of the San Francisco Giants, down 2-1 with a runner on base and two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning in the final deciding game against Los Angeles.  The batter, already with two strikes, clearly checked his swing on a ball outside the strike zone...but the first base umpire called him out, prematurely ending the game and the series.  That's not to say the batter wouldn't have failed on the next pitch or the Giants would have come back to win the game, but it shouldn't have been shut down that way.  In any event, I'm pulling for the Braves to upset the Dodgers...a little strange since Atlanta will have the home field advantage because they won their own division (with an 88-73 record) and Los Angeles qualified as a wild card team (at 106-56).  The worst World Series scenario I see is also the most probable: Houston (groan) with their tarnished legacy of cheating vs. Los Angeles.  If that happens I'm rooting for LA, but Atlanta is now my number one team, followed by Boston...

Quote of the Week...from Alan Watts

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.                             ---Alan Watts

The above quote I've seen countless times on my Music Choice Soundscapes channel, which rotates a number of sayings from various diverse sources.  The source of this one is Alan Watts (1915-73), a seeker who started out as an Episcopalian priest and later delved into Eastern religions and philosophy, one of the "gurus" of the counterculture movement of the late 60s and early 70s.  His quote is figurative: the applied meaning is that in many occasions it's best not to draw out conflicts and troublesome situations by overanalyzing and bringing them up over and over again with other people...once the different parties know where each of them stand and are fully informed of the situation, better to back off and let the matter rest.  That doesn't mean that I don't have my own strongly held opinions on different issues, and I use this blog as a forum to express them...others are free and welcome to do likewise, as setting up a blog like this one is free and easy, even for the Internet-challenged person that I am. Also, although I think that it's useful to go back into my own memories and see where I went wrong at times...as well as when others went wrong...continually replaying past offenses and failures in the present can only magnify their importance.  A good strategy in this regard is, when remembering something negative in my past, for me to stop and write down what I learned from it and then what specific positive change in my current life I can make as a result.  And then walk away and let the muddy waters grow still and clear...

Constellation of the Month: Piscis Austrinus (the Southern Fish)

 

The constellation Piscis Austrinus...Latin for the Southern Fish...is easily visible in the southern sky for those of us in northern latitudes in mid-evening during October. The constellation's one claim to fame is its first-magnitude star Fomalhaut, which also happens to be the only star this bright in the autumn evening sky...once you get past Deneb in Cygnus. The rest of Piscis Austrinus' "prominent" stars, i.e. the ones that make up the connecting dots of the constellation, are of 4th magnitude or fainter. If you go out on a clear night anytime soon around 10 and look south, you'll see a rather flat triangle there of bright stars: two of them, the ones on the right are the planets Jupiter (in the middle) and Saturn (on the right/west)...Fomalhaut is its left/eastern point.  And if you go out tonight or tomorrow (10/14,15), you'll see the bright moon in the midst of them, just past first quarter phase. Fomalhaut is relatively near, as stars go...only about 25 light-years distant.  It's also been the locale in a number of science fiction tales as well. Even if you discount Fomalhaut's presence, in spite of the other relatively dim stars in it, Piscis Austrinus is easier to pick out of the sky than the Zodiac constellations Aquarius to its north and Pisces to its northeast...

Next month: another constellation...

Weekly Short Stories: 1977 Science Fiction, Part 3

Below are my reactions to two more 1977 science fiction short stories, as they appeared in the anthology The 1978 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and featuring his selections of the best in that genre the previous year.  As I've mentioned before, 1977 was a year of transition as I moved from Hollywood in South Florida to Gainesville in the northern part of the state. Having lived in the same house since I was four and having done very little traveling during my childhood, the change was challenging if not a bit traumatic for me.  Still, the roommates with me in my dormitory were friendly and responsible...greatly putting my concerns at rest...and I managed to finished my first semester at college with decent marks.  And here are my reviews of those two stories...

JEFFTY IS FIVE by Harlan Ellison

The title character to this story is a twenty-two-year old, the same age as the narrator who knew and played with him when they were both five. But Jeffty is very different: in essence he is STILL five years old, never having grown physically or mentally.  But the fact that he still listens to old shows off his radio that had ended years before makes his story all the more chilling. The author makes the point that the barrier between the ongoing present and the past is fragile and can be easily upset...as if the present wants to consume the past.  I can't help but think that this tale is also a sort of analogy about how people hold their own versions of the past close to the vest and can be defensive about it if someone calls on them to live in the present...

THE SCREWFLY SOLUTION by Raccoona Sheldon

Not very far into the future a scientist working in Colombia has hit upon the solution to eliminating the disease-carrying screwfly by interfering with its reproductive process.  Meanwhile, across the world there is a quasi-religious cult growing whereby men attack and kill women after they are promised that God would provide a cleaner, holier means of reproduction.  Realizing he is "infected" and won't be able to control his own homicidal urges, he warns his wife in time for her to escape...at story's end she discovers the ominous cause of it all.  The connection between the scientist's work and the cult phenomenon couldn't be more obvious...  

Next week I conclude my look at short science fiction from 1977... 

Game of the Week: Pro Football

Back in March I wrote an article on flag football...click HERE to read my own personal experiences playing the game.  As for tackle football, including obviously the professional National Football League version, I never played it...so my experiences are purely vicarious with this form of the sport through watching on TV or listening to play-by-play on the radio.  Although as a little kid I had some football cards in my collection...showing the strange spacemen-like outfits the players wore...I didn't actually watch a game until the fall of 1966 when, fiddling around the TV channel knob, I landed upon a contest between the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers.  Not that I knew anything about the game's rules then, but I liked LA because of their cool ram helmets...and they won!  The next year my mother was avidly following the Johnny Unitas-led Baltimore Colts and I joined her enthusiasm, finally picking up on the rules but dismayed when the Colts lost their final regular season game to their arch-rival Rams and thereby missed the playoffs.  The next year in '68, although Unitas was injured early on, Earl Morrall capably filled in as quarterback and led the Colts to the Super Bowl, where they disastrously fell to the New York Jets.  That year also saw me become a fan of the third-year expansion team Miami Dolphins...nobody else in my family considered them yet worth rooting for.  In 1970, Baltimore's head coach Don Shula jumped ship and joined Miami, leading them to three early Super Bowl appearances, two championships including a perfect season in 1972 (with Morrall returning to fill in for injured Bob Griese for most of it), two more appearances in the '80s, and only two losing seasons from 1970 to 1995, when Shula finally retired.  In the 80's the Dolphins' first Super Bowl appearance in more than a decade featured a team dominated by defense (the "Killer Bees") with a mediocre offense...just two years later when they returned to the Big Game it was the defense that was weak while the offense, now explosive, was led by second-year sensation Dan Marino.  Miami sported some good teams afterwards but always seemed to have one team above them that was good enough to keep them from ever returning to the Super Bowl.  Statewide, Florida would receive two new more expansion teams in Tampa Bay and Jacksonville...I cheered the Bucs on as they won two Super Bowls in their own right...but I always considered the Miami Dolphins as my favorite team...even after I moved to Gainesville in the northern part of the state. This century Miami's fortunes have flagged with 2007 being their low point, going 1-15.  In recent years I've enjoyed out-of-state teams, notably the Seattle Seahawks and the New York Giants, the latter for whom I was grateful after twice beating Miami's divisional rival New England in the Super Bowl.  Nowadays I still root for the Dolphins but have favorites in each of the other seven NFL divisions...they are all listed below:

MIAMI DOLPHINS (American Conference East)

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS (South)

BALTIMORE RAVENS (North)

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS (West)

PHILADELPHIA EAGLES and NEW YORK GIANTS (National Conference East)

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS (South)

GREEN BAY PACKERS (North)

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS (West)

Of the above only Baltimore, Tampa Bay and Green Bay seem to be doing reasonably well after five weeks in 2021. But I still enjoy watching the different teams play, win or lose...

Political Toxicity Mushrooming

Politics has become so toxic nowadays that I'm hesitant to write articles about it, especially since what I express is often bound to sound toxic in itself.  On January 6th Donald Trump attempted to overthrow democracy and install himself as unelected dictator through his flunkies...I'm not talking about the loser Capitol building rioters but rather the elected representatives who chose to vote to overturn the election...some two thirds of the Republicans in the House of Representatives and seven in the Senate (including my own representative and one of my senators). In my next-day article I called them all fascists, and explained why, bringing up the term's commonly accepted definition.  I don't believe hardly any of those politicians who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election actually believed that the election was stolen, but they were taking their cues from Trump...the biggest fascist of them all...who seems to have a Jim-Jones-like hold on millions of adoring Americans who apparently have long pined for an authoritarian strongman to affirm their own talking points and smash down the Enemy (i.e. those who disagree with them). HBO host/comedian/egghead Bill Maher recently warned that the 2024 election may well portend the end of democratically-elected representative government if Trump runs and loses a close election again. The former president has already begun to call for a civil war, and several state legislatures have passed new laws giving themselves carte blanche authority to arbitrarily decide elections held in their own states...even the presidential vote...based on any "trumped"-up phony fraud claims.  In such an environment I don't know how one cannot feel toxic about our political situation here. The only reason Donald Trump has any political influence is because a large segment of our adult voting population has relinquished their own responsibility to discern the character of their leaders and has decided to accept any foul or deceitful thing coming from their chosen idol's mouth.  No, I don't always agree with Maher, but I think he's got it right this time.  As someone who often agrees with the conservative take on issues, I am dismayed by today's extremely toxic Trump phenomenon that precludes me from supporting any Republican candidate...

Also referring back to political toxicity, I am dismayed to see moderate elected Democrats who represent more conservative constituencies being raked over the coals for the crime of having a backbone when legislation is foisted upon them to support that they feel is excessive, either in terms of spending or government overreach.  The "progressive" Democrats who attack these public servants to me are incredibly short-sighted as well as ignorant: short-sighted because without the moderates in the Senate and the House, their own party would be in the minority and powerless to introduce legislation or confirm (or reject) federal judges and Supreme Court justices...and ignorant because historically the only stable legislation that doesn't tend to be undone when the other party comes to power is that passed with at least some semblance of bipartisan support as the result of negotiation and compromise...

Great Old TV Episodes...from The Twilight Zone

 

AND WHEN THE SKY WAS OPENED was a chilling Season One episode of the original Twilight Zone series, first aired in December, 1959...I was only three at the time and wouldn't see it until years later. This is television that is pinpointed in history, a speculation about what might happen should humans endeavor to go into space...a little more than a year before that actually happened with the Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin in April of 1961.  In this episode, a three-man astronaut crew fly an experimental space plane some 900 miles above Earth...but during its flight radio contact is broken for several hours and the plane is found crash-landed in the desert, all hands on board alive with one crewman, Gart, suffering a broken leg.  In the hospital the expedition leader Forbes, played by Rod Taylor (who would star in the original Time Machine movie the following year), tries to convince his bedridden colleague that there were THREE of them on the mission...but even the newspaper shows only two. Taylor then recounts what happened to the other man, Harrington, an old friend, as they both left that same room the day before with the paper (pictured above) showing all three of them.  But at a nearby bar with Forbes something happens to Harrington's thinking...as if he didn't belong there...and he vanishes.  Distraught over his buddy's disappearance, Forbes finishes his story to Gart and then starts to feel the same way as Harrington.  The ending was unexpected and ingenious...

When this episode first came out, no human had ever ventured into space and returned.  So it was intriguing to consider whether "something or somebody out there" didn't want us to ever leave our home planet and might take measures to prevent it. And then there's the notion that maybe the worse thing to no longer existing is to never have existed at all.  And When the Sky Was Opened is my all-time favorite episode of one of my all-time favorite TV series...

Reading Lev Grossman's Fantasy Series The Magicians for the 3rd Time

For the third time I am undertaking reading Lev Grossman's excellent fantasy trilogy The Magicians, which I consider as my favorite in that genre of fiction.  I've just finished reading (again) the first book, also titled The Magicians.  The protagonist, Quentin Coldwater, is a highly introverted, genius high school graduate on his way to a college interview in New York City with his friends Steve and Julia...the latter for whom Quentin has held a long, futile crush. Events cascade, leading to Quentin mysteriously passing through some bushes in the city to suddenly find himself in upstate New York on the grounds of Brakebills Academy, a secret school of magic to train magicians at a college level. They consider him a prospective student, but first he must pass the entry examination...he gets through it and is admitted.  Meanwhile, Julia has also been there taking the exam...but is rejected.  The series progresses through Quentin's relationships and training at Brakebills and Julia's attempts to find the hidden academy while learning more of the craft among peers outside "official" magical society.  Interwoven through it all is the fantasy (or is it real?) alternative world of Fillory, the setting of several novels from the early twentieth century that bear an uncanny resemblance to C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series.  Grossman put a lot of insight and development into his characters, of whom the Brakebills student Penny was the most interesting to me.  Unfortunately, the television adaption of The Magicians, running for five season on the SyFy Channel from 2015 to 2020, changed the book version way too much...including making its "Penny" character virtually unrecognizable from the books'.  Initially, when the TV series first aired I tried to follow it but quickly became "disenchanted"...sometimes I think the producers of screen adaptations bring in the original author as consultant not to make sure they conform to his or her intent but rather to lend a false sense of endorsement as they make wholesale changes in the plot and characters: I've seen this happen with other TV and movie adaptations as well.  In any event, I'm now into the second book, titled The Magician King...it goes deeper into Julia's efforts to develop her magical powers and be accepted by the magical establishment.  Yet I also recognize that The Magicians television version had good acting even if it did diverge too much from Grossman's novels. I'm giving it a second chance after I discovered that Netflix had it, but I sadly expect that neither its tone nor story line will conform in any significant degree to Lev Grossman's memorable and compelling literary epic...