Weekly Short Stories: 1988 Science Fiction, Part 4

As my reviews of short sci-fi stories from 1988 continue to the fourth week, I switch my focus to the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Sixth Annual Collection.  There is a small overlap of stories with the Donald A. Wollheim anthology I had been covering for the previous three weeks: Peaches for Mad Molly (Harry Turtledove), Schrödinger's Kitten (Howard Waldrop) and Skin Deep (D. Alexander Smith) are in both books.  As I've stated before, I can't believe Dozois didn't pick Ripples in the Dirac Sea (Geoffrey A. Landis), but I suppose there's no accounting for taste, sigh. And now, here are my reactions to the first (non-overlapping) tales in Gardner's anthology...

SURFACING by Walter Jon Williams

On another planet presumably in a future of human space exploration and settlement, a man with a cynical, angry attitude toward life and others is using humpback whales that he transported into its seas to detect and understand the deep-dwelling, intelligent indigenous beings there. Meanwhile, a shape-shifting alien has landed there and then presumably left...but then suddenly a woman scientist arrives on the scene, alternately competing with the man over his project and seducing him.  I was frustrated reading all this and felt the author stuck too many diverse elements into the story, which could have been simpler and shorter...

HOME FRONT by James Patrick Kelly

Will is an American teen in the near future (from 1988), putting up with his two loser friends and trying to do well enough in high school to stay out of the military draft and be sent off to fight in one of the never-ending wars abroad. One of his friends is playing the lottery to see if he can't become the next "Johnny America", the starring soldier in a TV show glorifying war and actually serving in it.  And then there are the Selective Service sweeps through high school to pick up fresh soldiers.  Pretty cynical, but at least nowadays Will's dismal situation would be less applicable to Americans...but much more so to Russian teens, sadly...

THE MAN WHO LOVED THE VAMPIRE LADY by Brian Stableford

Gardner Dozois must have thought that every alternative history tale automatically belongs to the science fiction genre, because he has so many in his collections...here's another.  This "time" it's 1623 and vampires not only really exist, but they are the dominant ruling class.  A "normal" human, a mechanist corresponding to our notion of a scientist, has made a discovery that could threaten the vampires.  He suspects mortal danger for himself as his old vampire lover is paying him a visit, not good...

THE LAST ARTICLE by Harry Turtledove

Ditto with this story regarding my previous comments about Dozois, alternative histories, and sci-fi.  This one is set in the late 1940s as the German Nazis, winners of World War II, are replacing Britain as the new occupying power in India, setting up a confrontation between their ranking officer there and peaceful resister Mohandas Gandhi. But Gandhi is in for a rude awakening as he has believed that all occupiers are essentially the same and susceptible to nonviolent resistance...

STABLE STRATEGIES FOR MIDDLE MANAGEMENT by Eileen Gunn

This brief story reminded me of Kafka's Metamorphosis as a future business executive, having consented to bioengineering on her body to further her career, wakes up one morning to discover the many insect-like features she is growing. I guess this was supposed to be a funny satire on human failings and overdependence on science...I did like how the protagonist handled her boss problem at the end, though I would never recommend it...

IN MEMORIAM by Nancy Kress

It's discovered in the future that our own accumulation of memories is a major factor in our aging and eventual death.  But a method...the memory wipe...can restore lost youth and create a longer, more active life to those who choose this path.  An aging woman, faced with the pressures of her flagging health and her own family's urging, must soon make the crucial decision. The ending was sad, profound and surprising...

Next week: more reactions to 1988 stories in the Dozois anthology... 

Comments about Football and Football

In football, the Sunday night national stage...which has pretty much supplanted the famed Monday Night Football spotlight of decades earlier, "my" Miami Dolphins were in the spotlight as they were finally in a featured game, this one on the road against the "Los Angeles" Chargers.  I put that location in quotes because I still think of them as belonging to San Diego. It seems that ever since they went into general decline following Jimmy Johnson's retirement as head coach after the 1999 season, Miami has been pushed to the background with network sports attention, only getting coverage when something negative is going on.  But this year they are doing better in the standings with first year head coach Mike McDaniel being heralded as some king of genius (they say it, I don't) and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa seeming to hit his stride, with star receivers Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill beginning to resemble Dan Marino's famed receivers of the past, Mark Clayton and Mark Duper.  NBC sports announcer Chris Collinsworth even went so far before the game to proclaim the Dolphins as Super Bowl bound...ha, ha, ha, I'll believe it when I see it!  True to form, the Dolphins, already known for being a poor road team on the Pacific Coast, quickly fell behind to the Chargers as Tua seemed to choke up earlier under all the media focus and the highly touted Dolphins defense found itself full of holes for San Diego Los Angeles to run right through.  Still, they nearly pulled the game out but now have lost two in a row, with a difficult road contest against Buffalo next week...

As for the other "football", that is, the sport that most of the world gives this designation, the men's World Cup soccer semifinals are set to be played: Argentina vs. Croatia at 1 pm today and France vs. Morocco tomorrow at the same time.  The overwhelming consensus has Argentina and France winning to play each other in the finale on December 18th.  I've written before about begin bummed out over excessive nationalism in sports, so I haven't been giving all this hoopla much coverage...or thought, for that matter.  I like more to watch different leagues play, most notably the English Premier League and Mexico's Liga MX with my favorite teams in them Leicester City and UANL Tigres, respectively.  On the league level, different teams hire their players across national borders and usually aren't so hung up about national divisions, the opposite of what happens with this highly politicized World Cup scene.  Since I happen to like Lionel Messi, I'm going to root for his Argentina team to win it all, but otherwise I couldn't care less about this tournament of nationalism and waving flags...

Just Finished Reading It by Stephen King

During that personally highly productive decade I've hitherto referred to as the "Aughts", I read most of Stephen Kings novels published to date, including the very, very long 1985 work titled It. "It"'s been adapted at least twice to movies as well as a TV series...after seeing on-screen adaptations of earlier King stories straying too far from the author's original narrative, I decided to pass up on them. Instead, I just finished reading It for a second time, after the more recently written King novel 11/22/63 has a scene taking place in It's setting of Derry, Maine, a fictional and bedeviled town that is also the primary location of his 1993 novel Insomnia (also a personal favorite). It is split into two parallel narratives, between the years 1958 and 1985.  The heroes are seven Derry children, self-dubbed "The Losers", who find themselves united through common circumstances against bullies as well as a sense of benevolence and genuine liking toward each other.  They make common cause against a murderous presence in the town, which takes different forms but primarily as a sinister clown named Pennywise...it killed George, the little brother of "Stuttering'" Bill Denbrough, and that set off the series of events leading to this gang of heroes forming in the strange local marshes called the Barrens.  It's already established at the novel's start that the seven all survived their childhood encounters with the evil entity, which not only kills but invades people's consciousness with negative and violent thoughts.  But whatever happened in 1958 did not lead it to It's demise, for it is back in Derry in 1985 as more people are turning up gruesomely killed...the seven are summoned in adulthood to finish the job they had begun 27 years earlier.  Stephen King delved deeply into the story's different characters, evoking little memories of my own past from snippets of the different children's experiences.  One different thing: the Losers were free to run around loose and form their own friendships, while my own parents were very restrictive and strict about me leaving the house to hang around others (although they, like King's "losers", had no such restrictions placed on themselves in their childhood).  Reading this thriller horror story the second time around was a wholly different experience, primarily because, naturally, I already knew how it would turn out.  One other thing without giving away the story: it was interesting how the protagonists underwent a general memory loss about not only their earlier experiences but also about one another.  I wander if the author was trying to convey something about human nature with this.  It is a good, albeit very scary novel, and requires a generous amount of time devoted to reading it.  My favorite excerpt comes at the very end, with a tumultuous bicycle ride downhill...who knew such a thing could bring tears to one's eyes?  I am currently rereading Stephen King's Insomnia, which as mentioned before is also set in Derry, but in the year 1991.  Not only was I impressed by the sensitivity shown to the elderly in this story, but it is also connected with the author's standout fantasy series The Dark Tower.   I've also been reading Neil deGrasse Tyson's latest popular science book Starry Messenger...I'll have a few things to say about it in a future article...

My #1 All-Time Favorite Album: Led Zeppelin IV

LED ZEPPELIN IV, my #1 all-time favorite album, came out in 1971 although I didn't hear all eight of its tracks for another nineteen years until the British hard rock band produced its first box set and my local rock station, WRUF-FM "Rock 104", played it in its entirety to my amazement.  What a group, and what an album, with guitarist wizard Jimmy Page doing his riffs and studio production, Robert Plant's soulful singing (and harmonica), John Paul Jones on bass guitar and keyboards and the late John Bonham pounding out the drums.  The album is technically untitled, but everyone pretty much refers to it as "Led Zeppelin Four".   My initial exposure to it was during my teens with the playing of the opening track Black Dog and then Stairway to Heaven on the radio...the former I never did care for while I became obsessed with the latter in the fall of 1973 as a strong consensus of its greatness had spread throughout the rock listening community.  During this time and subsequent years, I would also hear songs like Rock and Roll, Misty Mountain Hop, Going to California and When the Levee Breaks on FM album rock radio without taking much notice of them.  But in late 1990 I was ready for their music and the impact of that box set, along with the advent of stations nightly playing Led Zeppelin music at set times, converted me into a die-hard fan, ten years after they broke up following Bonham's death.  Although Stairway to Heaven was on Side One, it was the album's second side with four striking tracks that has elevated Led Zeppelin IV to be my favorite one for all-time.  Below I have its tracks listed by order of my liking, with a little commentary thrown in...

1 WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS---In their early years the band had a nasty habit of lifting old blues songs without crediting the original composer...they rectified it later, including this rock arrangement of a 1929 blues piece by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy.  This is a relentless song about suffering through misfortune as Plant alternately wails and plays perhaps the most compelling harmonica piece I've heard. From 1991 until just recently I regarded it as my all-time favorite song and still rank it very high.  The opening drums/guitar/harmonica segment is matchless...

2 MISTY MOUNTAIN HOP---Making a passing reference to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, the lyrics are more a contemporary social commentary and a warning that "you better open your eyes".  Never heard a beat and lyrical buildup as in this ultimately sinister but beautiful Side Two opening track...

3 STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN---The first Zeppelin song I ever took to, I first got to like it a lot while lying in a hospital bed, recovering from surgery and listening to rock radio in October 1973.  The way the song transforms from a slow flute/acoustical piece gradually into a rousing hard rock guitar jam at the end has always impressed me...brilliant...

4 GOING TO CALIFORNIA---A mellow (for the most part) Robert Plant sings of goin' to California with an aching in his heart and looking for a woman who has never, ever been born.  Speaks of sometimes irrational, idealized sentiments that can cloud our own judgments...can I get an amen from anyone on that?  I loved the acoustical guitar on it and wonder how it would stand up instead as a piano piece...

5 FOUR STICKS---Some bands have specific songs in their catalog they avoid performing in live concerts because they are difficult to play... the Beatles' And Your Bird Can Sing, Rush's YYZ...and this one from Led Zeppelin: John Bonham thought Four Sticks was exceptionally hard on the drums.  It's kind of like When the Levee Breaks regarding the sense of deeply felt lamentation and an overriding mystical sense, and, yes, I'm a sucker for all that... 

6 THE BATTLE OF EVERMORE---An excursion into fantasy land as Plant sings of dire events unfolding in Tolkien's  Lord of the Rings setting.  He sings a pretty passionate duet here with Sandy Denny.  John Paul Jones dominates the song's instrumentation with the mandolin...

7 ROCK AND ROLL---Maybe the best anthem extolling rock and roll: exuberant, energizing, and happy.  Dang it, it's hard to hear it without just getting up and dancing around (while playing air guitar)...

8 BLACK DOG---Written literally about a black dog that had wondered into the recording studio one day, this is an exercise in jamming with the band members going off in their own jazzy/rock directions with their instruments and, in Plant's case, voice.  Never did care for it, though, although I can see how others would. Just seemed like they were showboating maybe a little too much here...

So that's it for my all-time favorite albums...guess I'll be cooking up some new feature for future weeks...

 

Ran Depot Park's Free Saturday Morning 5K Today

Having originally intended to sign up and run for a different race for today, that one for 15K, I was curtailed from signing up online with no information provided on being able to do so on race morning. So, I decided instead to go for a known quantity: the Depot Parkrun just south of downtown Gainesville, which holds free Saturday morning 5K events each week, promptly posting results online with an ever-increasing database of past results.  This was my ninth Parkrun since 2019, and I was pleased and honored for Melissa to join me...she hadn't been to this pretty nature-oriented park before and went as a walker, covering half the race's distance and enjoying the ambiance and enthusiasm of others.  As for that other race, they did later send me an email stating that I could sign up on race morning...but they could have expressed that on their website but didn't and, besides, I had already made other plans.  This morning the temperature was in the pleasant upper fifties, but the humidity was a muggy 100%: ugh.  There were lots of people at the part to run it...or, in Melissa's case, walk the sloping and winding course around the park: four laps make the 5K (3.1 mile) distance.  Around the one-lap mark the top of my left foot started to ache some and I wondered if it would get worse and I'd have to stop.  Fortunately, the problem abated, and I ran a consistent-but-subdued pace to finish the race in 40th place out of 92 finishers and second in my age group (M 65-69) with a time of 31:46...click HERE to view the results. With that foot issue I am wondering whether I should just stick with the heavier, more padded shoes I use during regular training and forget about the lighter and less protective racing shoes...maybe I'll try another Depot Parkrun and see.  I recommend this race...the folks are all friendly and helpful, the park is beautiful with its birds and trees and lake, and they have excellent bathroom facilities, something I've grown to never take for granted.  I'll have to check my online running calendar website to see if there are any interesting races left in December...otherwise I'll just stick with my at-home training and this Depot Park event until 2023 rolls around.  Oh, one other thing...there's a cool bagel place, Luke's, on the west side of Main Street just north of the turnoff circle to the park...they're really good, New York style, although you probably will have to wait a while in line for them to take and complete your order...

Quote of the Week...from Mark Twain

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.              ---Mark Twain

It's getting nearly impossible these days to find news sources in which they don't offer commentators to follow up on the selected news stories with their own biased interpretations, or "spin".  The three major so-called "news" networks are guilty of this...FoxNews is the worst offender.  Not only is the commentary one-sided, but the actual topics selected are slanted as well as whomever they might choose as guests to interview.  In reaction we're getting other channels touting themselves as "just the news", but wouldn't you know it, even they can't resist the temptation to hire their own (biased) commentators...just in case you're too stupid to come to your own conclusions about the news you just heard and can't form your own opinions without someone else spoon-feeding theirs to you.  I suppose it's just a part of human nature to take fragments of incoming information and try to create whole narratives from them...or, better yet, fashion them to fit one's own by emphasizing the elements that fit and discarding those that don't.  And if you can't do that for yourself, then help is on the way anywhere you look on the TV dial.  And radio...what a sick joke...

"Aught" We to Stop Referring to Decades?

Dr. Rick, the dude on the Progressive insurance commercials who has committed his efforts to helping young adults to stop acting like their parents, has one less item to work on. The tendency for baby boomers like me to group decades together from the previous century (Fifties, Sixties, Seventies, Eighties, Nineties) came to an abrupt wall with the advent of the twenty-first.  The opening decade of this century is technically called the "Aughts", but I kind of like to use "Zeros" although nobody really uses either term...or even any name at all for this crucial span of time.  Lots of neat stuff happened in my life during this period, and significant events (like the 2000 election, 9/11, the Iraq & Afghanistan Wars, the Christmas tsunami, Katrina, Obama's election) occurred...but the Good Doctor has yet to feel any need to dissuade straying young'uns from grouping it all together as a decade.  No, young and old alike seem to have a mental block about time once the calendar shifted over from "19" to "20". You might think then that once 2010 came around than at least, at that time, folks would resume with the decade talk, calling it the beginning of the "Teens"...but nothing doing.  And now, deep into the Twenties, I had yet to hear any such reference to the times we live in, with most people I imagine thinking more of the roaring 1920s when the term does come up instead with the associations of Prohibition, silent flicks and Calvin Coolidge.  Are we truly finished with the decades talk?  I've heard references made to the "2000s", but as far as I'm concerned, that term covers every year in this century, not just the first decade...

Weekly Short Stories: 1988 Science Fiction, Part 3

Today I conclude my look at 1988 science fiction short stories as they appeared in the anthology Donald A. Wollheim Presents the 1989 Annual World's Best SF, featuring the editor's picks from the previous year.  In 1988, Melissa and I lived the whole year with our miniature poodle Taffy at a nice, student-oriented apartment complex just off Williston Road on SE 16th Ave.  I mention that because it's the last apartment I have resided in: the next year we would move to our house in far northern Gainesville.  When I think today of the different apartment complexes I used to live in, I miss their swimming pools...although curiously I never used one while I lived there...not even the one by my dorm when I went to UF.  That how memories can sometimes get clouded by our present priorities, I guess.  And now, let's discuss the final four stories in Wollheim's anthology...

WAITING FOR THE OLYMPIANS by Frederik Pohl

I thoroughly enjoy Frederik Pohl's clear and plain writing style, and this alternative history story of the Roman Empire surviving and thriving into our present times doesn't disappoint.  Everything's just hunky dory as in this world, technology and opportunities seem boundless...if you're free and not a slave, that is.  A spaceship from a galactic-type federation of advanced worlds out there is headed for a first contact with Earth to see if we're worthy of being in their club...suddenly, all communication from the ship ceases.  I figured out early on where this story was going, but enjoyed reading through it anyway...

AIN'T NOTHIN' BUT A HOUND DOG by B.W. Clough

An entrepreneur in the mail order trivia business gets a curious string of orders to a remote place in West Virginia.  As the orders swell, he decides to make a big delivery in person to the nearly inaccessible address...and gets a big surprise.  A kinky, funny tale that reminded me of some of Stephen King's short stories...

ADRIFT AMONG THE GHOSTS by Jack Chalker

It's long been acknowledged that our radio and TV broadcasts are going straight out into space and could potentially be picked up...years and years into the future...by intelligent cultures out there.  This is the scenario, not explicitly explained at first, as one of "them" has become quite a connoisseur and expert on all the old shows...this tale is a venture into nostalgia.  But at story's end it all comes crashing down with a somber realization...

RIPPLES IN THE DIRAC SEA by Geoffrey A. Landis

Wouldn't you know it, after railing against time travel stories for so long I would encounter two brilliant ones: Stephen King's epic novel 11/22/63 and this short story by Geoffrey A. Landis. Ripples in the Dirac Sea is the best, word-for-word: the author delves into quantum theory and antimatter science to present a plausible explanation for how time travel into the past could well be possible, and without paradox. It's stories like this that make plowing through many forgettable ones worthwhile: a true classic of science fiction, yet it was accomplished in just a few pages...

Next week I continue reviewing 1988 short stories, but I'll be shifting over to Gardner Dozois' excellent anthology series, although for some reason he didn't feel my favorite one from Wollheim's anthology worthy of inclusion: go figure...

Florida Gators Get Bowl Bid, But Without Season's Starting QB

The University of Florida football team somehow managed to finish their 2022 season bowl eligible, with a 6-6 record reflecting erratic performances.  They surprised the football world early on with an upset 29-26 opening day win over favored Utah...the Utes went on to win their Pacific-12 Conference championship.  And they delivered impressive 41-24 and 38-6 wins over Texas A&M and South Carolina, respectively...the latter went on to upset Clemson.  But the Gators also went flat in other games, nearly losing to a very weak South Florida team and actually bowing to lowly Vanderbilt.  First-year coach Billy Napier gets the customary rookie season pass on the 2022 edition's efforts.  After all, one of the chief criticisms of previous head coach Dan Mullen was that he was coming up short with recruitment...the real season for Florida football is about to begin as "Billy Ball 2.0" is set to go into high gear...will our new coach be another Billy Donovan?  Only time will tell. But first they have one more game in '22: the Las Vegas Bowl in that Nevada entertainment city on December 17th against an exciting Oregon State team that just recently knocked cross-state rival Oregon out of Pac-12 contention with a massive come-from-behind victory.  Since Florida's talented, but inconsistent quarterback Anthony Richardson has decided to enter the NFL draft, they will be hard pressed in that position...apparently many transfer and draft decisions are depleting other football rosters in advance of the upcoming bowl games.  Still, I'm looking forward to the Las Vegas Bowl, which will air on ABC at 7:30...and it will be on a Saturday, so I'll most likely be off from work then...

Podcaster Talks Again about the "Hundred Days"

On his Mindset Mentor podcast, personal development coach Rob Dial tends to recycle the same topics over the course of time.  That's good...there's such a thing as being all over the map and disjointed with your message: better to keep it to a few profound principles.  Last December he had a show about the "hundred days"...the other day he discussed it again.  In a nutshell, Dial maintains that the key to success crucially depends on maintaining consistency in an area...and doing something daily for one hundred straight days is a good way to attain it.  As with the other podcast on this topic, he brought up the example of comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who maintained that he kept the habit of coming up with a set amount of new material each and every day...and marking his progress on a big calendar.  So according to Dial (and Seinfeld), you first pick a specific endeavor...not too cumbersome...to habituate yourself to doing, preferably one that if implemented could make a real positive difference for you.  Then you do it every day for a hundred straight days, refusing to give in to pressure from without or negative self-talk from within to take "days off".  And finally, RECORD your progress, either on a Seinfeld-styled calendar or in a journal.  Oh, and Rob Dial strongly hints that it's best to work on one thing at a time for the hundred days.  I don't know which aspect of this is more difficult: coming up with one high-leverage goal or realizing the enormous number of things I want to change for myself.  I think it's a good idea, in any case.  I've done this sort of thing already although not according to any formula, and it works...

My #2 All-Time Favorite Album: Revolver by the Beatles

Ever since REVOLVER by THE BEATLES...my all-time #2 favorite album...came out in 1966 and my parents promptly purchased a copy, I've liked it and the great variety of music on it.  I wouldn't discover until many years later, though, that the version sold in the United States, as opposed to the original marketed in Britain and elsewhere, was diminished in what it offered.  Three tracks...I'm Only Sleeping, And Your Bird Can Sing, and Doctor Robert, were missing in "our" version, having been placed on an America-only patched together album titled Yesterday and Today that was released earlier in '66 (I was nine going on ten at the time) ...my mom and dad quickly snapped that one up, too.  When CDs came out, the record industry bosses decided to just use the more complete British version of Revolver, which I am naturally totally okay with.  Every one of the fourteen tracks on it are good, although over the course of the 56 years I've heard it they've varied as to which are my favorites.  Back then while I was growing up, I tended to prefer the last two tracks of the album, Paul's Got to Get You into My Life and John's Tomorrow Never Knows...although my parents disliked the latter and never did buy a subsequent Beatles album.  Revolver came out just as the Beatles had finished a harrowing world tour and had decided to stop performing live and just produce studio albums instead.  The next album would be the somewhat pretentious Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, still an all-time favorite of mine.  But Revolver stayed true to the tried-and-true formula that had vaulted the Fab Four to fame and fortune...although its opening track Taxman, a George Harrison piece, strongly insinuates that it was the British government with its excessive taxation that has profited from their success the most.  "Back then" I preferred Side Two with those two aforementioned songs along with the melancholy Paul piano-and-horn piece For No One.  Now, though, I kind of dig the Harrison contributions, especially the heavily Indian music-influenced Love You To.  Below I have the album's fourteen tracks rearranged into the order of my own personal preference, with the principal singer and songwriter (with the exception of Yellow Submarine, sung by Ringo but written by Paul and John) following the title...

1 ELEANOR RIGBY (Paul McCartney)

2 FOR NO ONE (Paul)

3 TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS (John Lennon)

4 DOCTOR ROBERT (John)

5 AND YOUR BIRD CAN SING (John)

6 LOVE YOU TO (George Harrison)

7 TAXMAN (George)

8 I'M ONLY SLEEPING (John)

9 GOT TO GET YOU INTO MY LIFE (Paul)

10 SHE SAID SHE SAID (John)

11 HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE (Paul)

12 I WANT TO TELL YOU (George)

13 YELLOW SUBMARINE (Ringo Starr)

14 GOOD DAY SUNSHINE (Paul)

Next week I'll reveal and discuss my #1 all-time favorite album, from a different British quartet...

Watching College Football Conference Championship Games Today

I've been enjoying my weekend so far, among my "activities" being sitting in front of the TV and watching college football conference championships games.  I was disappointed to miss last night's Pacific-12 championship contest between Utah...which my hometown Gators beat at the beginning of the season...and USC...which only had to win this game to go on to the four-team championship playoffs.  In the last couple of years, I have been undergoing a kind of sea change about my team allegiances...in the past I've consistently gone against both the Trojans and Nick Saban's Alabama.  Yet this time around I found myself rooting for the Crimson Tide and being disappointed in their tight regular season losses to Tennessee and LSU.  I thought they didn't have a chance to make the playoffs, but in the past two weeks a succession of improbable results involving schools ahead of them in the polls has now elevated them to consideration for a final championship playoff slot, now that TCU...hitherto undefeated but in a weaker conference...just lost their Big-12 championship game in overtime to Kansas State.  Now Georgia, Michigan and Ohio State are pretty much assured of being in the playoffs while that final spot comes down between the Horned Frogs and Tide.  I'm listening to the TV sports jocks and announcers throw their own opinions around and think that the selection committee will probably pick TCU despite today's loss because if they don't, then the playoff will consist only of teams from two conferences...and then the opening round will pit same-conference teams against each other.  No, they don't won't that kind of scenario and criticism, so even though I...and most others...believe Alabama is a better team with higher prospects of advancing, they'll pick the sentimental favorite TCU.  This in spite of the fact that TCU had to come from behind in the second half in five of their twelve wins and played opponents generally inferior to those that Alabama had to play.  Oh well, there's politics in just about anything that involves the act of subjective choice among people with power...sorry, Nick, but I think you're about to get screwed over...

Quote of the Week...from George Santayana

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.     ---George Santayana

There is a corollary to this quote by the famous Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana (1863-1952): "A country without a memory is a country of madmen".  I first encountered his writing during my senior high school English class in late 1973...I had just turned 17.  It was an assigned book containing short essays from different intellectuals of the past.  Santayana's contribution was dry and pretentious...and I said as much on my subsequent written report, for which I received a grade of "9" (that school's equivalent of "A+").  But Santayana's legacy rests not so much in essays or books as it does in aphorisms, which is a fancy way of saying short, profound quotes.  With these he was right on target, as the above two illustrate.  My experience with politics and the rise of authoritarianism in some countries tells me that not only can we point back to world history of times like the early twentieth century, but also, we can see trends in our present mimicking those that led to the loss of freedom and democracy in different countries. The problem as I understand it is that within most nations exists a substantial core population of people who I conveniently term the "rabble".  They tend to view intellectuals as alternately weak and manipulative, while viewing strongarm leaders as effective and worthy of their devotion, at the same time tending to scapegoat various segments of the population as causing their own problems as they embrace tailor-made conspiracy theories to support their own prejudices...sound familiar?  The ominous revival of fascism here in America is also going on in other parts of the world...and I think this process is cyclical with that core potential in the population to keep stirring things up.  I'd hate to think we're getting another Hitler, but as Santayana said, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it...and yes, a country without a memory is a country of madmen.  As for the philosopher's other writing, age has mellowed my earlier negative reaction to it.  When you're a novelist, you are writing with the general reader in mind, tailoring your language and narrative to their level and perspective.  When you're an academic, your papers will come out in a language that covers your thesis and arguments as completely as possible...this can result in that dry, almost unreadable text that students have long suffered with their assigned math textbooks.  Still, I'm partial to Santayana's aphorisms...

My November 2022 Running and Walking Report

In November my running increased, with walking staying pretty much the same...with the former, it's something I need to intentionally do while the latter just comes about naturally over the course of my day.  I ran on every day of the month and participated in two races, the Tom Walker Memorial Half Marathon on the 6th and the Depot Parkrun on the 12th.  With the half-marathon, held on the Hawthorne Trail just southeast of Gainesville, the temperature/humidity combination was an unhealthy 70s/90s and I had to resort to long walking breaks during the last half of the race.  A week later the shorter 5K was held under cooler conditions...no problem there.  I had thought of running in yet another race, the Cupcake Half-Marathon on the 20th and also on the Hawthorne Trail...but originating in the town of Hawthorne.  But it was forecast to rain that morning, and I steered clear of it.  On Saturday, December 10th...once again on that dang-blasted Hawthorne Trail will be still another race, this one the Tyler's Hope 5K/15K dual event held to raise awareness and money to combat dystonia.  I've run their 15K race twice before, the last time in 2019 before Covid shut everything down for a while.  Once again, the weather will be a factor on whether I enter it or not...I plan to check the forecasts attentively.  It's generally been warmer and muggier for this time of year...although I complain on race morning if the temperature is in the 30s or 40s, the races go much better under those conditions, which are also usually accompanied by lower humidity.  I intend to continue my daily training in any case...

Reading List Authors A-C

Abercrombie, Joe             THE BLADE ITSELF            9-1-18

                                         BEFORE THEY ARE HANGED         9-22-18

                                         THE LAST ARGUMENT OF KINGS 12-20-18

Abraham, Daniel              THE DRAGON’S PATH     10-30-14

                                         THE KING’S BLOOD          2-7-15

                                         THE TYRANT’S LAW         3-7-15

                                         THE WIDOW’S HOUSE    3-27-15

 l                                       THE SPIDER’S WAR          4-23-16

Abrahams, Peter              BULLET POINT    6-4-19

Acuff, Jon                        FINISH                   6-11-21

                                        START                    6-24-21

                                        DO OVER              7-3-21

Adams, Richard                 WATERSHIP DOWN         2-19-18

Alcott, Louisa May           LITTLE WOMEN                 6-4-17

Alexie, Sherman               THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN   1-12-19

Asimov, Isaac                   THE STARS, LIKE DUST    1-28-14

                                         PEBBLE IN THE SKY          2-3-14

                                         FOUNDATION                   8-19-15*

                                        FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE   8-29-15*

                                        SECOND FOUNDATION  9-11-15*

                                        PRELUDE TO FOUNDATION         9-19-15

                                        FOUNDATION’S EDGE    10-5—15*

                                        FOUNDATION AND EARTH           10-18-15*

                                       NEMESIS               1-7-18

                                       THE END OF ETERNITY    7-2-19

                                       FORWARD THE FOUNDATION     7-18-19

                                       THE GODS THEMSELVES                5-23-20

Austen, Jane                   PRIDE AND PREJUDICE   12-6-14

Austen, Jane                   EMMA                                  6-25-16

Baldacci, David             DIVINE JUSTICE                 12-27-13

                                       THE COLLECTORS             1-11-14

                                       ONE SUMMER   6-4-18

                                       DELIVER US FROM EVIL 8-4-18

Baldwin, James             IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK     5-20-21

Bardugo, Leigh             NINTH HOUSE    12-14-19

Barry, Kevin                  BEATLEBONE      1-11-19

Baum, L. Frank             THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ              10-8-18

                                      THE MARVELOUS LAND OF OZ    1-28-19

                                      OZMA OF OZ      2-11-19

                                      DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD IN OZ           2-11-19

                                      THE ROAD TO OZ              3-12-19

                                      THE EMERALD CITY OF OZ             3-12-19

Beaton, M.C.                 DEATH OF A BORE            1-19-14

Bellow, Saul                  HERZOG                               10-16-15

                                      THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH       8-12-17

                                      HUMBOLDT’S GIFT          8-28-17

Berendt, John                MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL 2-26-19

Berg, Elizabeth             TAPESTRY OF FORTUNES               5-22-17

Blish, James                  VOR       8-7-17

Boehner, John                ON THE HOUSE            6-14-21

Bowman, Akemi Dawn        SUMMER BIRD BLUE        4-24-21

Bradbury, Ray                FAREWELL SUMMER       11-16-14

Bronte, Charlotte            JANE EYRE                           9-24-16

Bronte, Emily                 WUTHERING HEIGHTS    11-19-14

Brooks, Terry                  THE SWORD OF SHANNARA 12-18-18

                                      THE ELFSTONES OF SHANNARA 1-3-19

                                      THE WISHSONG OF SHANNARA 1-19-19

Brown, Eleanor             THE LIGHT OF PARIS        3-10-18

Brown, Jeff                    FLAT STANLEY                2-27-21

Buck, Pearl S.                THE GOOD EARTH            4-4-15

Butcher, Jim                   FURIES OF CALDERON                    1-7-20

                                        ACADEM’S FURY               1-21-20

                                       CURSOR’S FURY                2-6-20

                                      CAPTAIN’S FURY               3-1-20

                                      THE PRINCEP’S FURY                       3-28-20

                                      FIRST LORD’S FURY                          4-16-20

Card, Orson Scott          ENDER’S GAME                 8-20-16

Carr, Caleb                    THE ALIENIST                    6-21-21

Cather, Willa                 MY ANTONIA                     8-27-18

Cervantes, Miguel de    DON QUIXOTE                   2-29-16

Chesterton, G.K.           THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY: A NIGHTMARE                7-23-18

Chilton, Ski                   THE REWIRED BRAIN                       9-15-20

Christie, Agatha             DEATH IN THE CLOUDS            6-23-18

                                       SAD CYPRESS      4-25-19

                                      MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS           7-30-19

                                      THE SECRET ADVERSARY               8-6-19

                                      MURDER ON THE LINKS                 8-20-19

                                      THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE TRAIN            9-28-19

                                      THEY DO IT WITH MIRRORS        3-15-21

                                      AND THEN THERE WERE NONE        6-7--21

Clare, Cassandra           CITY OF BONES 4-13-19

                                      CITY OF ASHES   4-22-19

                                      CITY OF GLASS   5-6-19

Clark, Mary Higgins     NIGHTTIME IS MY TIME 3-26-08

                                      A CRY IN THE NIGHT        1-6-19

                                      THE MELODY LINGERS ON            2-13-21

                                      JUST TAKE MY HEART        7-5-21

Clarke, Arthur C. & Pohl, Frederick      THE LAST THEOREM        12-26-15

Clarke, Suzanna            JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR. NORRELL               5-11-15

Coelho, Paulo                THE ALCHEMIST                5-7-21

Colfer, Eoin                   ARTEMIS FOWL (1^st 3 books)       2-12-18*

Collins, Suzanne            THE HUNGER GAMES     5-27-14

                                       CATCHING FIRE                 6-24-14

                                      MOCKINGJAY                    7-3-14

                                      THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES             11-8-20

                                      GREGOR THE OVERLANDER          11-21-20

                                     GREGOR AND THE PROPHECY OF BANE   12-15-20

                                     GREGOR AND THE CURSE OF THE WARMBLOODS               2-12-21

                                     GREGOR AND THE MARKS OF SECRET       3-13-21                             

                                     GREGOR AND THE CODE OF CLAW        3-22-21

Collins, Wilkie              THE WOMAN IN WHITE 12-18-16

Condie, Ally                  ATLANTIA            4-10-17

Connelly, Michael         THE LINCOLN LAWYER    1-24-14

Conrad, Joseph              HEART OF DARKNESS     3-5-15

Cook, Robin                   PANDEMIC                                          4-21-20

Cornwell, Patricia           AT RISK                                 5-9-14

Coulter, Catherine          THE COVE                            9-12-14

                                       THE MAZE                           9-12-14

Craig, Erin A.                 HOUSE OF SALT AND SORROWS 11-1-20

Crichton, Michael          STATE OF FEAR                  3-22-09

Weekly Short Stories: 1988 Science Fiction, Part 2

Today I continue looking at 1988 science fiction short stories from the anthology Donald A. Wollheim Presents the 1989 Annual World's Best SF, with selections by the series' editor from the previous year.  1988, sadly, changed forever the way national presidential elections are conducted in America, with hateful and often false innuendoes openly promoted by major political parties against the others' candidates.  In this case Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis, the pleasant enough and competent former governor of Massachusetts, who I genuinely liked, was torn apart during the final weeks of the campaign by the Republican political dirty tricks machine in scathing televised political ads...and the public bought it, easily electing George H.W. Bush in the election after Dukakis had an earlier large lead in the polls.  The lesson from this: wallow in the mud of defamation and lies if you want to get elected...Trumpism is a direct consequence of this campaign.  Sigh, back to the stories, which to me were equally disturbing...

THE FLIES OF MEMORY by Ian Watson

Novella-length, this story has the common theme of "aliens among us", ostensibly peacefully going about their business while the press and popular imagination run rampant with speculation about their motives.  But the walking "flies" have stated their aim: to "remember" as much of Earth as practicable.  The questions then are why, and what about the sections of reality that are suddenly disappearing?  The protagonists shift in this tale, from Charles, an expert on body language hired to determine the truthfulness of the flies' claims, to Olivia, who can see into the future.  I felt the story could have been a bit shorter without detracting from it.  On the other hand, maybe the author had intended it as a novel and cut it down to novella-size, who knows...

SKIN DEEP by Kristine Katherine Rusch

Humans have this terribly annoying trait of settling into an area inhabited by others and then treating the native people and animals as outsiders...this is the story of a shape-shifting native "boy" on a distant, recently colonized world, trying to survive in the midst of suspicion and prejudice.  This is the best kind of sci-fi, projected into the future in an otherworldly setting while providing allegorical themes about the shortcomings of our human nature at home in the present...

A MADONNA OF THE MACHINE by Tanith Lee

Reading this immediately reminded me of the old silent movie Metropolis, where workers are practically welded to the machines they work at.  In this story of the future, humanity has been reduced to working on "the" Machine, which assigns and regulates every...I mean every...facet of their lives, and their names have similarly been reduced to just uncapitalized first names.  But since peter and anna, the story's focus, have only known this life from birth, they see nothing amiss...that is, until a strange female apparition sporadically begins to appear to them and the others.  To me this read like a forerunner to The Matrix, with errors in the Machine's design and programming assigned to a special entity...in that movie's case it's the character Neo and here the "Madonna of the Machine".  Humanity's increasing dependence on technology gets the full treatment here...

Next week: more reviews from Wollheim's anthology covering 1988 sci-fi...

My Current Favorite Albums of 2022

While I've been going through my list of all-time favorite albums, there are still some good ones coming out...2022 hasn't disappointed.  For 2022 my chosen favorite music has been primarily of a small number of album releases by various artists I've come to know over the past few years...and one from 2014.  I should say "the last half" of 2022, because it wasn't until this summer and the release of Regina Spektor's new album Home, before and after that I began to direct my attention to current music...the poor quality of "hits" that radio was airing didn't help.  After that I've listened to other acts' releases: We by Arcade Fire, Lucifer on the Sofa by Spoon,  A Light for Attracting Attention by the Smile, The Alchemist's Euphoria by Kasabian and Pagans in Vegas by Metric.  The Smile features Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and for all practical purposes sounds just like a Radiohead album...cool.  Metric has just released their new album Formentera, on which I've had trouble finding tracks to my liking.  But I did go back to that 2014 Pagans in Vegas, and it's one of their best works.  I haven't been listening to music off the radio, so my year-end list of favorite songs will no doubt consist of tracks from these albums.  Also, Sufjan Stevens has just released one, in collaboration with someone I don't know named Angelo De Augustine, titled A Beginner's Mind...I'm currently checking that one out.  Good music is out there but you sometimes have to look for it...I don't trust the judgment of radio programmers to present the best songs...

Podcaster Examines Problems with Procrastination

On one of his recent Mindset Mentor podcasts, personal development coach Rob Dial brought up the topic of procrastination, which apparently most of us have to deal with to varying degrees.  But he claimed that habitually putting things off isn't the problem, but the symptom...so what? as far as I'm concerned, the symptom for me IS the problem.  Dial stresses that I should examine the underlying fears preventing me from stepping out and doing the things I had already purposed to do...as usual, he suggests sitting down with pen and paper to work this out.  He also points out that I currently am the product of myriad small habits and initiatives (or procrastination) from my past, weighted on what I did (or didn't do) in the last five years or so.  And then he proposed three tips to help to get on with doing what I really want to do.  First, he admonishes against "negotiating with your mind", that is, once a decision has been made about what to do, don't let yourself down and put it off...which is equivalent, after all, to not doing it.  Second, finish what you start...and take it to every area of your life, even with mundane activities like cooking and then cleaning up afterwards.  And finally, do more than what you said you were going to do.  This always comes at the close of an activity and is a conscious decision to push it a little further...Dial suggests by about 10%.   All of Rob Dial's points are well-taken and rather obvious, yet as I go through my daily walk it's easy to cop out and claim that I just don't have the time, that something else has priority over what I already know should be my priority.  Good podcast, worth pursuing...let's see if I can't implement his suggestions someday...

My #3 All-Time Favorite Album: Kid A by Radiohead

The 2000 RADIOHEAD album KID A is my #3 all-time favorite album although I hadn't heard any of its songs until ten years later when I obtained it and transferred it onto my MP3 player to listen to during my then-long distance (15 miles plus) training runs.  From then on listening to one of these pieces transports me to that time and the different paths I used.  Initially panned by many music critics, it has come to be considered not only as the British alternative rock band's best, but also one of the greatest albums ever.  Still, I think you kind of have to be inclined toward this genre of tech rock.  And, frankly, lead singer Thom Yorke has the kind of voice that can sometimes grate on your ears!  Yet I've grown to love this band's music and look forward to any new release of theirs...and my all-time favorite song (These Are My Twisted Words) is from them as well. Below are Kid A's tracks listed in order of my liking, but the entire album worked for me...

1 MORNING BELL--song's lyrics are about the brutal effects of divorce, but I associate it with my 2010 ultra-long training runs, listening on my MP3...

2 IN LIMBO--the ultimate "going down the rabbit role" song, with a jazzy bent...

3 HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY--"disappear" here has 2 meanings, one to go into hiding and the other as a symptom of social disaffection...

4 IDIOTEQUE--a robotic, dystopian kind of beauty this song has; another great running track...

5 OPTIMISTIC--I later came to appreciate this one, maybe the most "singles" worthy song on the album, more sinister than optimistic in tone...

6 EVERYTHING IN ITS RIGHT PLACE--the album's opening track, perfect for putting the listener in a receptive state of contemplation and reflection...

7 KID A--like Idioteque, a dystopian/electronic song, and with a strange, other-worldly singer...

8 THE NATIONAL ANTHEM--I wonder what words you'd add to this hip/rock/jazz tune to make it ours? Or maybe just keep it instrumental...

9 TREEFINGERS--dreamy instrumental mood piece...

10 MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK--pleasant enough song, but big gaps of silence messed it up on my MP3...

Next week: my #2 all-time favorite album (and one of the most famous)...

Planning on Watching Men's World Cup Soccer Tourney Despite Nationalism

The 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup of soccer...a sport that is called "football" in nearly every other country of the world...is underway with matches in the group stage.  It's held every four years, the even-numbered years not divisible by four is how I like to remember it (or during the Winter Olympic year).  This time around, the little Persian Gulf country of Qatar is the selected site, and the United States...unlike with the previous World Cup...qualified for it.  Not that I'm especially rooting for my country...I probably have more "viewership roots" in soccer with the Mexican national team since I've been a regular follower of that country's premier league since 2014, more than with our homegrown Major League Soccer.  Truth be told, though, I have long been sick and tired of the excessive nationalism in international sports and if you've read past articles on this blog about soccer, tennis, golf, or other sports, you might notice that I have consistently downplayed the national origins of various players or the teams they represent...and I objected to this year's banning at Wimbledon of Russian and Belarusian players because of a war that they had no personal role in.  For this World Cup I have yet to watch a match, but as time grinds on I'm sure I'll enjoy a few...it's going on up to the finale on December 18th.  It's a lot easier following a televised drawn-out sports event like the U.S. Open in tennis or the Olympics when I'm off from work on vacation, or last year, when I was recovering from surgery.  My opposition to excessive nationalism doesn't mean that I won't pick a side of a World Cup match I'm watching to pull for...and yes, I suppose the USA and Mexico are going to naturally be among my favorites although I don't plan on being nutty about it...

Quote of the Week...from Groucho Marx

Who are you going to believe...me or your own eyes?.    --Groucho Marx

The witty, acerbic member of the twentieth century comedy team Marx Brothers, Groucho Marx had a lot of funny sayings...another I like is from the movie Duck Soup: "Why, a four-year-old child could understand this report. Run out and find me a four-year-old child.  I can't make head nor tail out of it."  The above quote I did select sadly has a lot of relevance to today's world of disinformation, conspiracy theories and innuendo. I, like you, am a fellow traveler through this strange time of mass digitalization and nearly universally available news sources due to cell phone/Internet technology as well as a multitude of different "news" channels on television, tailored to reinforce the preconceived notions of their viewers.  Social media, especially Facebook and Twitter, and search engines like Google employ algorithms to discern their users' interests and politics...and then present material that promotes them.  I distinctly remember Trump's 2017 presidential inauguration and the general sparsity of people attending it in person...and his claim to the effect that it was a record-setting crowd.  And then his yes-people went out into the media to parrot that false claim.  About all these mass shootings, the Covid pandemic and the 2020 election, I've seen these issues all for what they were and yet the media is loaded with those promoting denial and lies: and people believe them and not their own eyes!  I'm not sure people in general haven't changed...they've always had this kind of tribalism to them that sways them to accept "facts" that are untrue just to fit in with their group.  What's different is how this omnipresent digital input is affecting how different folks distinguish reality from fantasy...or whether they actually want to...

Happy Thanksgiving to All

I'd like to wish each and every one of you a most Happy Thanksgiving Day today, wherever you happen to be.  It's a time to reflect on what and who we have to be grateful for in our lives, something we (at least I) should try to do more often.  Again, Happy Thanksgiving!

Weekly Short Stories: 1988 Science Fiction, Part 1

Today I begin reviewing 1988 science fiction short stories from the anthology Donald A. Wollheim Presents The 1989 Annual World's Best SF, featuring the editor's picks from the previous year.  For me 1988 marked my first full year working at the Gainesville post office, in the specialized capacity of a letter sorting machine clerk working the late-night, early-morning shift.  I think I can confidently say that I enjoyed that assignment and actually miss working on that machine, which has been long replaced nationwide by automated letter sorting machines.  But back then each of us (twelve consoles per machine) would sit there keying the destination codes for each letter as it passed in front of us, 50-60 per minute.  The fact that I could listen to the radio on my headset made it even better, initially focusing on my local country station and then switching over time to Rock-104.  Good times, good times...that was back when Gainesville's mail processing was done at the Downtown Station, situated across the street from the public library.  But enough of my old job, let's look at those stories...

THE GIVING PLAGUE by David Brin

This is an especially relevant story in today's backdrop of COVID-19, different evolving strains and vaccines.  Here a new blood-borne virus has been detected, and it owes its own survival and propagation to the effect it has on its carriers: altruism, crystallized in the desire to donate blood.  An ambitious and unscrupulous medical scientist narrates this story as he tries to wrest credit from the actual discoverer while trying to determine the scope of this new scourge...

PEACHES FOR MAD MOLLY by Steven Gould

In a not-so-distant future marked by overpopulation and a virtual autocratic police state ruled by those with wealth and privilege...you know, where we're heading...skyscrapers live up to their name as a new subculture thrives on the outer walls, hundreds of stories from the ground where a single false step brings a very long fall and death.  The protagonist has a special mission: pick up supplies from a lower floor...and bring back some fresh peaches for one of his co-dwellers.  But there's a hitch:  twenty of the floors along his way (on the building's outside) are controlled by a hostile gang...and among them is his nemesis.  Exciting plot and a clever premise...

SHAMAN by John Shirley

In yet another dystopian future scenario, a technologically advanced police state has created a social withdrawal to localized gang-controlled sectors in the big cities.  Quinn, accompanied by his group of Cisco, Zizz and Bower, must pass through an urban zone occupied by a militant Muslim gang to get to the "Middle Man" on the way to rescuing a social activist from the controlling government's tightly run skyscraper prison.  The Middle Man has his own ideas about how to fight back against authoritarianism, and they reminded me much of Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods....

SHRÖDINGER'S KITTEN by George Alex Effinger

A young Middle Eastern woman keeps reliving one disturbing scene in her life where she waits overnight in a hometown alleyway to stab (or not stab) a young man who will enter it just before dawn and sexually assault her (or try to).  This alternates with flashes forward when she is an assistant to German physicist Werner Heisenberg, author of his Uncertainty Principle and one of the leaders of the Nazi project to develop an atomic weapon during World War II.  It was hard for me to figure out this tale, with all the jumping back and forth and all, but I guess the main point is the woman tying in Heisenberg's discoveries with her own experiences...which reminded me of the protagonist in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five getting "unstuck in time"...only here it happens in multiple universes... 

Next week: more from Wollheim's '88 anthology...