A few weeks ago, Time Magazine came out with its list of the hundred most influential people in the world. The fact that President Bush was left off the list makes its legitimacy suspect, regardless as to how one would appraise his performance. On the other hand, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was included, to the magazine’s credit. Noted showboat defense attorney Alan Dershowitz wrote the article accompanying Robert’s selection. He complimented the new and relatively young Chief Justice (confirmed less than two years ago) as being very qualified for the job. But Dershowitz cast suspicion on Roberts’s early decisions on the high court, claiming that he may be using “standing” to deny cases that could challenge the constitutionality of laws and actions. He implied that Roberts could be using this so-called “technical mechanism” (Dershowitz’s own words) to further his own agenda in a disguised manner so as not to appear biased.
Standing, however, is a fundamental element of law that refers to a plaintiff’s ability to show his or her relevance to the case being brought to the court. It is embedded within the U.S. Constitution and has always had its place in determining the suitability of cases to receive a court hearing. There is a trail of cases that were refused hearings before the Supreme Court because of a lack of standing, going back well before Roberts was there, some of which challenged the constitutionality of laws or actions. Dershowitz himself admitted that he could not as yet see any bias in Roberts’s actions, but would continue to monitor them to see if any developed (in other words, to see if Roberts sometimes becomes lax in invoking standing in order to allow cases to be heard of which he’s inclined to support the plaintiff’s position).
All I see from this is a new Chief Justice who, like all of his predecessors, has his own way of doing things. In his case, that includes emphasizing that parties seeking hearings before him adhere strictly to the rules pertaining to being in standing. It appears to be an effort on his part to make the court a more disciplined body. Once all parties involved accept this and adapt to it, there shouldn’t be a problem. And Dershowitz should not have cast aspersions on Roberts’s objectivity in this article. I am not a fan of Chief Justice Roberts. But painting a picture of him that is unsupported by current facts is unfair.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Favorite Songs: #10 to #9
#10 Close to the Edge by Yes (from Close to the Edge, 1973)
This incredibly long song, lasting for more than eighteen minutes and spanning the entire first side of the album with the same name, is worth every second. It is a spectacle of sound, in my opinion the culminating work of Yes, a very talented band to begin with. There is nothing like it, before or after. Yes itself tried five other album-side-long pieces after Close to the Edge and only managed anything remotely as good with their beautiful At the Gates of Delirium from Relayer. Close to the Edge features, like most Yes tunes, singer/lyricist Jon Anderson’s high-pitched incomprehensible singing. It wasn’t that you couldn’t discern his words: they just didn’t make any sense! But to me, that’s part of the fun of listening to Yes. But the main attraction was keyboardist Rick Wakeman’s virtuosity. Yes showed off some of that skill in their 1972 radio hit Roundabout, but in Close to the Edge, Wakeman pulled out all of the stops in the wildest keyboard jam I’ve heard (toward the song’s ending). Within Close to the Edge, the tempo and melody varied greatly, but the transitions from one part to the next were done well enough to give the whole piece a feeling of coherence. This was a song that I first heard in the early-to-mid 1970s but did not fully appreciate until 1993, when I bought the CD and was astounded by it. Yes has gone through many member changes over the years. One time, they all got back together (two drummers, two lead singers, etc.) and did a critically-panned album titled Union. As far as I know, they’re still together in some form or another. Other songs of theirs that I like a lot are I’ve Seen All Good People, Yours is No Disgrace, South Side of the Sky, Heart of the Sunrise, And You and I, Leave It, and Changes.
#9 For My Lady by the Moody Blues (from Seventh Sojourn, 1972)
The first Moody Blues song I heard was their moderately successful mid-1960s hit Go Now with Denny Laine as the lead singer. This band didn’t take off in popularity, though, like their contemporaries the Who, the Animals, the Rolling Stones, and of course, the Beatles. Laine left the band (later to join Paul McCartney’s band Wings) and it looked as if the Moody Blues had little prospect for a successful future. But then Justin Haywood and John Lodge joined up and they began a flood of prolific creativity that enveloped all of the band’s members. They also were very adept at composing and recording off of a device, called the mellotron, which effectively simulated symphonic instruments. From 1968 through 1972, the Moody Blues recorded seven studio albums, every one of them a classic in my eyes (they recorded three in 1969 alone). My favorite of these was To Our Children’s Children’s Children from 1969, but my favorite song of theirs was For My Lady, a song written and sung by band member Ray Thomas, appearing on their Seventh Sojourn album and sometimes played on album-rock radio stations as a lead-in piece to their popular singles hit Isn’t Life Strange. Thomas’s contributions have always been my favorites of the Moody Blues. They usually have a whimsical though sometimes spooky feel to them that can be riveting at times. And For My Lady was one such time. From the time that I first heard it until now, I have loved it as one of my all-time favorites, being one of very few songs that I instantly deemed as being great. I think the Moody Blues are still out there performing and I wish them continued success. Some others of my favorites from them are Peak Hour, Nights in White Satin, Legend of a Mind, Lazy Day, Are You Sitting Comfortably, Floating, Out and In, Candle of Life, Nice to Be Here, One Step Into the Light, The Day We Meet Again, Gemini Dream, and Celtic Sonant. The Moody Blues, you may have concluded, is another band whose studio albums I have bought in their entirety. Because they’re such a good, quality band!
Next favorite songs: #8 to #7
This incredibly long song, lasting for more than eighteen minutes and spanning the entire first side of the album with the same name, is worth every second. It is a spectacle of sound, in my opinion the culminating work of Yes, a very talented band to begin with. There is nothing like it, before or after. Yes itself tried five other album-side-long pieces after Close to the Edge and only managed anything remotely as good with their beautiful At the Gates of Delirium from Relayer. Close to the Edge features, like most Yes tunes, singer/lyricist Jon Anderson’s high-pitched incomprehensible singing. It wasn’t that you couldn’t discern his words: they just didn’t make any sense! But to me, that’s part of the fun of listening to Yes. But the main attraction was keyboardist Rick Wakeman’s virtuosity. Yes showed off some of that skill in their 1972 radio hit Roundabout, but in Close to the Edge, Wakeman pulled out all of the stops in the wildest keyboard jam I’ve heard (toward the song’s ending). Within Close to the Edge, the tempo and melody varied greatly, but the transitions from one part to the next were done well enough to give the whole piece a feeling of coherence. This was a song that I first heard in the early-to-mid 1970s but did not fully appreciate until 1993, when I bought the CD and was astounded by it. Yes has gone through many member changes over the years. One time, they all got back together (two drummers, two lead singers, etc.) and did a critically-panned album titled Union. As far as I know, they’re still together in some form or another. Other songs of theirs that I like a lot are I’ve Seen All Good People, Yours is No Disgrace, South Side of the Sky, Heart of the Sunrise, And You and I, Leave It, and Changes.
#9 For My Lady by the Moody Blues (from Seventh Sojourn, 1972)
The first Moody Blues song I heard was their moderately successful mid-1960s hit Go Now with Denny Laine as the lead singer. This band didn’t take off in popularity, though, like their contemporaries the Who, the Animals, the Rolling Stones, and of course, the Beatles. Laine left the band (later to join Paul McCartney’s band Wings) and it looked as if the Moody Blues had little prospect for a successful future. But then Justin Haywood and John Lodge joined up and they began a flood of prolific creativity that enveloped all of the band’s members. They also were very adept at composing and recording off of a device, called the mellotron, which effectively simulated symphonic instruments. From 1968 through 1972, the Moody Blues recorded seven studio albums, every one of them a classic in my eyes (they recorded three in 1969 alone). My favorite of these was To Our Children’s Children’s Children from 1969, but my favorite song of theirs was For My Lady, a song written and sung by band member Ray Thomas, appearing on their Seventh Sojourn album and sometimes played on album-rock radio stations as a lead-in piece to their popular singles hit Isn’t Life Strange. Thomas’s contributions have always been my favorites of the Moody Blues. They usually have a whimsical though sometimes spooky feel to them that can be riveting at times. And For My Lady was one such time. From the time that I first heard it until now, I have loved it as one of my all-time favorites, being one of very few songs that I instantly deemed as being great. I think the Moody Blues are still out there performing and I wish them continued success. Some others of my favorites from them are Peak Hour, Nights in White Satin, Legend of a Mind, Lazy Day, Are You Sitting Comfortably, Floating, Out and In, Candle of Life, Nice to Be Here, One Step Into the Light, The Day We Meet Again, Gemini Dream, and Celtic Sonant. The Moody Blues, you may have concluded, is another band whose studio albums I have bought in their entirety. Because they’re such a good, quality band!
Next favorite songs: #8 to #7
Monday, June 11, 2007
Life's Things-To-Do List
I remember reading, many, many years ago, an article in Life magazine about a man who, early in his adult life, had made a list of all the different things that he wanted to do in life and all of the different places he wanted to visit. By the time that the article came out, he had accomplished much of what he had set out to do. Due to various factors, though, cold war politics being one of them, he still hadn’t done everything or visited everywhere. But that was all right, because this man’s list was deliberately made so that he would have to spend a lifetime in order to fulfill it. I think I was somewhere in my teens when that Life issue came out, but I didn’t make a list then, even though I thought what that guy did was pretty cool. But “now” is always a good time to start, isn’t it? Actually, it’s the ONLY time to start anything! And my goals nowadays probably wouldn’t necessarily coincide with what I would have set out to accomplish thirty years ago. On the other hand, some of the goals I may have set for myself back then may have already been fulfilled by now anyway. For example, I’ve graduated college, I’m married to a wonderful woman, I have two great kids, I’ve finally ridden in a plane, and a few other things as well. But what are some things that I haven’t done yet that I’d like to do?
--Visit another country. I have yet to be outside of the U.S., not even for one second! Naturally, there are a few countries I’d like to visit, chief among them China, Germany, France, and Russia. Of course, to accomplish this as a goal would demand time and money that I am currently investing in other areas of my life, but if visiting these places were made lifetime goals, then whatever is going on right now should not limit me from realizing these goals at some time in the future.
--Play a musical instrument well. I already own a piano, and my two children have been taking piano lessons for years. But not me. Until now! Last week was my first piano lesson, and I’m not going to stop until I am competent enough to play from written music in any key and to play any song that I have ever heard that I can remember the tune to (numbering in the thousands), written music or not.
--Write a novel, get it published, and make a generous amount of money from it. There is an intermediary goal to this, which is to write anything, get it published, and make any amount of money from it! Like other things, I’m just going to have to keep plugging away at it. But first I need to START plugging away at it!
--Run and finish a marathon. And not by walking part of the way, either. I have resumed running again, but at a very gradual, measured buildup. I don’t see running marathons as my main focus in running, but finishing one does represent a great milestone to aim at.
--Speak a foreign language fluently. Although I’ve had an off and on interest in studying foreign languages, I never did achieve fluency in any of the several that I have taken an interest in over the years. But I believe that there now is a lot of good language-learning material, especially from computer software, and many more opportunities to practice my comprehension and expression because of the World Wide Web.
--Star gaze the Southern sky in person. To accomplish this goal, I need to travel to the Southern Hemisphere to some place that has cloudless nights and little interference from city lights or other man-made sources. Places like Peru, Australia, and Namibia come to mind because of their arid climates, southern location, and availability of areas far from cities. I do need to be far enough south of the equator, though, so that I can observe a larger section of the Southern Circumpolar sky. And, of course, I would need time to explore the sky as well.
--Sky dive. If “Daddy” Bush (former President George H.W. Bush) has the guts to do it, then so should I! Of course, he did fly on bomber planes during World War II and he also survived one that was shot down, so maybe I should just scratch that comparison. But I would like this experience anyway, even if it were only a “tandem” jump with a more experienced jumper in charge of pulling the chord and giving timely instructions to me (like “jump”!). This is something that I’m just going to have to get up and do someday, but when I do I think I’m going to want to have a video recording made of my experience.
Are there other worthwhile goals to pursue in life? Of course! Some of them are a little more mundane than others, and I’ll pursue those goals as part of my ordinary day to day living. Perhaps if I come up with some other goals, I’ll collect them and present them another time.
--Visit another country. I have yet to be outside of the U.S., not even for one second! Naturally, there are a few countries I’d like to visit, chief among them China, Germany, France, and Russia. Of course, to accomplish this as a goal would demand time and money that I am currently investing in other areas of my life, but if visiting these places were made lifetime goals, then whatever is going on right now should not limit me from realizing these goals at some time in the future.
--Play a musical instrument well. I already own a piano, and my two children have been taking piano lessons for years. But not me. Until now! Last week was my first piano lesson, and I’m not going to stop until I am competent enough to play from written music in any key and to play any song that I have ever heard that I can remember the tune to (numbering in the thousands), written music or not.
--Write a novel, get it published, and make a generous amount of money from it. There is an intermediary goal to this, which is to write anything, get it published, and make any amount of money from it! Like other things, I’m just going to have to keep plugging away at it. But first I need to START plugging away at it!
--Run and finish a marathon. And not by walking part of the way, either. I have resumed running again, but at a very gradual, measured buildup. I don’t see running marathons as my main focus in running, but finishing one does represent a great milestone to aim at.
--Speak a foreign language fluently. Although I’ve had an off and on interest in studying foreign languages, I never did achieve fluency in any of the several that I have taken an interest in over the years. But I believe that there now is a lot of good language-learning material, especially from computer software, and many more opportunities to practice my comprehension and expression because of the World Wide Web.
--Star gaze the Southern sky in person. To accomplish this goal, I need to travel to the Southern Hemisphere to some place that has cloudless nights and little interference from city lights or other man-made sources. Places like Peru, Australia, and Namibia come to mind because of their arid climates, southern location, and availability of areas far from cities. I do need to be far enough south of the equator, though, so that I can observe a larger section of the Southern Circumpolar sky. And, of course, I would need time to explore the sky as well.
--Sky dive. If “Daddy” Bush (former President George H.W. Bush) has the guts to do it, then so should I! Of course, he did fly on bomber planes during World War II and he also survived one that was shot down, so maybe I should just scratch that comparison. But I would like this experience anyway, even if it were only a “tandem” jump with a more experienced jumper in charge of pulling the chord and giving timely instructions to me (like “jump”!). This is something that I’m just going to have to get up and do someday, but when I do I think I’m going to want to have a video recording made of my experience.
Are there other worthwhile goals to pursue in life? Of course! Some of them are a little more mundane than others, and I’ll pursue those goals as part of my ordinary day to day living. Perhaps if I come up with some other goals, I’ll collect them and present them another time.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Randi's Challenge
James “The Amazing” Randi is famous, not only for his trade as a magician, but also for his role as a skeptic who is scornful of any claims regarding the paranormal, especially phenomena attributed to psychic abilities. As part of his efforts in this regard, for several years he has offered a million dollars to anyone who could prove their psychic or paranormal abilities publicly and under scientific scrutiny. To this date, many have tried and all have failed. They are listed on his website. I’m not against him doing this, but I believe that he is not proving anything other than that people who make public claims of paranormal powers tend to be either seriously deluded or outright frauds. But to make any claim denying the existence of people with psychic abilities, based on the results of this project of his, would be extremely prejudiced and unscientific in itself.
In making this point, I am not claiming that there are any psychic people out there. But if I did have a psychic power such as reading minds or clairvoyance, then the last thing that I would want to do is let others know about it. Knowledge is power, and there are too many people in the world, many who are very powerful, who have deep, dark secrets (at least to them) that they don’t want others knowing. So knowing for a fact that someone is psychic and possibly privy to their secrets would probably put that psychic’s safety, and even life, in jeopardy. And that’s just common sense. The way a true psychic or paranormally talented individual would use this gift (if any actually existed) would be to surreptitiously obtain marginal profits in financial transactions based on his or her insights, as well as be in (or away from) certain places at opportune moments. But not enough to raise suspicions in others. Everything would be done behind-the-scenes, in small, hard-to-detect portions, not in some big act of grandstanding. So, publicizing this talent to the point of trying to convince others and winning a big jackpot of money would be an irrational act if one really had paranormal abilities. Furthermore, if someone were one of the public, “career” psychics, it would be in their best interests to take Randi’s test and fail it. By doing so, those who might be concerned that they have something to fear from them can wave them off as harmless fakes, while the “failed” psychics can still practice their craft with the true believers (or, in the view of Randi, the truly gullible). In light of my reasoning, then, Randi’s offer to test self-proclaimed psychics is meaningless to its implied purpose, which leads me to speculate that perhaps its main, unstated goal is to draw public attention to career showman James Randi himself.
In making this point, I am not claiming that there are any psychic people out there. But if I did have a psychic power such as reading minds or clairvoyance, then the last thing that I would want to do is let others know about it. Knowledge is power, and there are too many people in the world, many who are very powerful, who have deep, dark secrets (at least to them) that they don’t want others knowing. So knowing for a fact that someone is psychic and possibly privy to their secrets would probably put that psychic’s safety, and even life, in jeopardy. And that’s just common sense. The way a true psychic or paranormally talented individual would use this gift (if any actually existed) would be to surreptitiously obtain marginal profits in financial transactions based on his or her insights, as well as be in (or away from) certain places at opportune moments. But not enough to raise suspicions in others. Everything would be done behind-the-scenes, in small, hard-to-detect portions, not in some big act of grandstanding. So, publicizing this talent to the point of trying to convince others and winning a big jackpot of money would be an irrational act if one really had paranormal abilities. Furthermore, if someone were one of the public, “career” psychics, it would be in their best interests to take Randi’s test and fail it. By doing so, those who might be concerned that they have something to fear from them can wave them off as harmless fakes, while the “failed” psychics can still practice their craft with the true believers (or, in the view of Randi, the truly gullible). In light of my reasoning, then, Randi’s offer to test self-proclaimed psychics is meaningless to its implied purpose, which leads me to speculate that perhaps its main, unstated goal is to draw public attention to career showman James Randi himself.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Extinct Gainesville Eateries
I’ve lived in Gainesville long enough (nearly thirty years) to come up with a pretty good list of now-extinct eating places that I liked to dine in. Here are some of them:
Dale’s Roast Beef … NW 13th Street (US 441)
The site that once was Dale’s is now an empty weed-grown lot just north of NW 7th Avenue. Dale’s was a wonderful restaurant that was really fast-food but had a very pretty, comfortable, and roomy dining area. Its specialty was roast beef, which was very good (I am partial to roast beef). Dale's also had one of the first all-you-can eat salad bars (its heyday in Gainesville was during the late 1970s) for a fast-food place. But what I liked the most and had to buy whenever I went there was one of their scrumptious apple turnovers (with a cup of coffee). Dales seemed to be part of a chain of roast beef eateries that just didn’t make it and died out.
Georgia Boys Barbeque …SW Archer Road
In my opinion, Georgia Boys had the best barbeque around. The dining room was cramped, but what I usually did was buy their take-out one-half barbeque chicken special that came with garlic bread, coleslaw, and fries, for a very good price. Unfortunately, Sonny’s Barbeque decided to build their own place directly across the street, and a rivalry between the two blew up in the press in the form of a contest as to which barbeque the public preferred. Nobody asked me my opinion, but soon thereafter, Georgia Boy’s closed down their business. Too bad. Sonny’s is okay, but the Georgia Boys barbeque was better.
Gordy’s Subs … SW 34 Street (now a reptile store)
For about six years, I lived in an apartment complex that was within two minutes of a bicycle ride (cutting through the adjacent apartment’s parking lot) to this establishment. It was extremely convenient to come to this place, buy a sub sandwich (they had the best turkey salad subs), and pedal quickly back home. This was back in the early to mid-1980s. Now, whenever I buy sub sandwiches anywhere, I compare them (usually unfavorably) to Gordy’s.
Primrose Inn … West University Ave
On Thanksgiving in 1977, during my time as a student at the University of Florida when I resided on-campus, my roommate and I stayed behind instead of traveling back home for the holiday. His entire family came up for a visit, and they invited me for dinner with them at the Primrose Inn. The dining there was wonderful, and it was enhanced by all of the gracious, friendly, and generous people in this wonderful family. My roommate’s mother, who as a girl had escaped the Nazis in the western USSR during World War II and spoke Russian, Polish, and Yiddish, presented me with the gift of a book titled Opowiesci Biblijne, a Polish-language book delving into Biblical stories. The next year I did take a course at UF in Polish. I still have the book and would sometime like to use it as a Polish language-learning reader. I’m not sure when the Primrose Inn closed for the final time: one day I just noticed that it wasn’t there anymore.
Brown Derby … US 441
The only times that I ate at this restaurant located on the northern border of Paynes Prairie south of Gainesville were when my sister and her family would visit Gainesville in the early 1980s and take me out to dinner with them. So, I always associate our pleasant reunions with the Brown Derby. This restaurant predated the barrage of later restaurants that invaded Gainesville and provided similar menus. At that time, in the early 1980s, it was the place to go out with others and have dinner, with something there for just about anyone’s preference in food. I don’t know about its final closing, but for a while a different restaurant occupied its location and, if memory serves me correctly, one day it burned to the ground. Nowadays, on the same site, stands a place called the Islamic Study Center.
Cathay Tea House … SW 35 Blvd (Butler Plaza)
I worked for a while at this Chinese restaurant located in a strip shopping center off Archer Road in southwest Gainesville. It was here that I learned of the great diversity of Chinese cuisine that’s out there, far above and beyond the processed La Choy and Chung King products on the grocery store shelves. There are so many Chinese foods I like (especially the way they were prepared at Cathay Tea House) but my favorites are Sichuan eggplant, Hunan duck, hot and sour soup, and fried rice. The dining room there was cozy, dark, and comfortable. Cathay Tea House is, like Gordy’s is with subs, the standard that I compare all Chinese restaurants with. And most come up short, although there are some real good ones around in Gainesville.
Wuv’s Hamburgers … NW 13th street near UF
Wuv’s was a Florida hamburger chain that lasted from the late 1970s until it filed for bankruptcy in 1981. It was known, not only for its burgers, but also for its fries with the skins on them, chili, and fried chicken. It should have been a bigger success than it was, but I guess the quality of the product is only one factor in whether a business ultimately survives. When Wuv’s closed its doors, Granny’s, a fried chicken eatery, replaced it. After that closed, Maui Teriyaki moved in. Now the entire west side of 13th Street, from University Avenue and up to NW 3rd Avenue, has been torn down in order to build more condo units (yes, that’s all we need in an already overcrowded area. Way to go, Gainesville!).
Lum’s … SW 13th street
Lum’s was an old restaurant chain. I remember one in Hollywood as well. They always advertised hot dogs steamed in beer, although I never took them up on that delicacy. I mainly used Lum’s around 1979-80 to have occasional breakfasts. The restaurant that replaced them was Cedar River Seafood, a good place to eat in its own right.
(old) Krystal … West University Ave
Right across the street from UF, this 24-hour establishment was my most oft-visited restaurant during the period when I lived on campus. They didn’t just serve those dinky almost nonexistent Krystal burgers, but also sold full breakfasts, big hamburgers, fried chicken, and chili. And their coffee was pretty good, too. Most of all, I liked just being able to sit in there with some books and study in that ambiance with a view of the campus. That particular Krystal shut down, and for a while there wasn’t any in Gainesville. Then, a few years ago they came back, with great fanfare, to a new location about three miles north on NW 13th Street. But the only hamburgers they were serving were those puny Krystals and minor variations thereof, with the rest of their former menu wiped out. I’ve noticed that they’ve lately begun to diversify their menu some, but they're still not the same as the 24-hour Krystal I grew to enjoy eating and studying at.
Sambo’s … SW Archer Road
This is the restaurant with the unfortunate name. The allusion for the name is meant to be to pancakes, of course, but a lot of people think the story of Sambo is racist. I didn’t think so when I was a kid, but then again, I guess it’s all in the way that one tells it. Anyway, I liked this restaurant, which was close to my apartment in the early 1980’s. I liked to sit up at the bar and have some coffee there and, occasionally, breakfast. After it closed for good, a similar restaurant called Season’s took its location; then a Jerry’s replaced Seasons for a brief time. Other restaurants (and a building-gutting fire) followed. Now the location has been rebuilt to house Starbucks, Moe’s, Panera, and Coldstone Ice Cream.
Jerry’s … NW 13th Street
Jerry’s had a similar menu to Sambo’s, but was closer to what was originally an all-night zone on NW 13 Street that had several stores and restaurants. I remember they had some kind of tettrazini dish that I liked a lot. Its location is now occupied by a restaurant with the strange name “The 43rd Street Deli on 13th Street”! I worked for a few months once as a cook at a Jerry’s in Leesburg, Florida. That Jerry’s went out of business soon after I left. I guess they couldn’t handle the loss!
The Eatery … NW 69th Boulevard
Between the Oaks Mall and I-75, just off Newberry Road was this great seafood restaurant. Its main attraction was its incredible seafood buffet, the likes of which I have not seen since. I remember dining there during the late 1980s. After it closed, a Red Lobster took its place.
Ryan’s Steak House … North Main Street
Simply the best all-around buffet I’ve seen in Gainesville, plus great to-order steaks, if that’s what you want. This was a place my family and I went to a lot in the 1990s. I think another restaurant took it over, but I’m not sure if it’s in business anymore.
Rax Roast Beef … SW Archer Road
I loved their roast beef sandwiches and baked potatoes. There was another Rax on NW 13th Street as well. I don’t know what happened to roast beef places like Rax and Dale’s. But I can’t speak for everyone else’s tastes, I suppose. The Rax location on SW Archer Road is occupied now by a Chick-Fil-A.
I could go on and on with this topic. But I did go over the restaurants I missed the most. There are some that are gone that I don’t miss, though, but it’s probably for the best that I don’t bring them up.
Dale’s Roast Beef … NW 13th Street (US 441)
The site that once was Dale’s is now an empty weed-grown lot just north of NW 7th Avenue. Dale’s was a wonderful restaurant that was really fast-food but had a very pretty, comfortable, and roomy dining area. Its specialty was roast beef, which was very good (I am partial to roast beef). Dale's also had one of the first all-you-can eat salad bars (its heyday in Gainesville was during the late 1970s) for a fast-food place. But what I liked the most and had to buy whenever I went there was one of their scrumptious apple turnovers (with a cup of coffee). Dales seemed to be part of a chain of roast beef eateries that just didn’t make it and died out.
Georgia Boys Barbeque …SW Archer Road
In my opinion, Georgia Boys had the best barbeque around. The dining room was cramped, but what I usually did was buy their take-out one-half barbeque chicken special that came with garlic bread, coleslaw, and fries, for a very good price. Unfortunately, Sonny’s Barbeque decided to build their own place directly across the street, and a rivalry between the two blew up in the press in the form of a contest as to which barbeque the public preferred. Nobody asked me my opinion, but soon thereafter, Georgia Boy’s closed down their business. Too bad. Sonny’s is okay, but the Georgia Boys barbeque was better.
Gordy’s Subs … SW 34 Street (now a reptile store)
For about six years, I lived in an apartment complex that was within two minutes of a bicycle ride (cutting through the adjacent apartment’s parking lot) to this establishment. It was extremely convenient to come to this place, buy a sub sandwich (they had the best turkey salad subs), and pedal quickly back home. This was back in the early to mid-1980s. Now, whenever I buy sub sandwiches anywhere, I compare them (usually unfavorably) to Gordy’s.
Primrose Inn … West University Ave
On Thanksgiving in 1977, during my time as a student at the University of Florida when I resided on-campus, my roommate and I stayed behind instead of traveling back home for the holiday. His entire family came up for a visit, and they invited me for dinner with them at the Primrose Inn. The dining there was wonderful, and it was enhanced by all of the gracious, friendly, and generous people in this wonderful family. My roommate’s mother, who as a girl had escaped the Nazis in the western USSR during World War II and spoke Russian, Polish, and Yiddish, presented me with the gift of a book titled Opowiesci Biblijne, a Polish-language book delving into Biblical stories. The next year I did take a course at UF in Polish. I still have the book and would sometime like to use it as a Polish language-learning reader. I’m not sure when the Primrose Inn closed for the final time: one day I just noticed that it wasn’t there anymore.
Brown Derby … US 441
The only times that I ate at this restaurant located on the northern border of Paynes Prairie south of Gainesville were when my sister and her family would visit Gainesville in the early 1980s and take me out to dinner with them. So, I always associate our pleasant reunions with the Brown Derby. This restaurant predated the barrage of later restaurants that invaded Gainesville and provided similar menus. At that time, in the early 1980s, it was the place to go out with others and have dinner, with something there for just about anyone’s preference in food. I don’t know about its final closing, but for a while a different restaurant occupied its location and, if memory serves me correctly, one day it burned to the ground. Nowadays, on the same site, stands a place called the Islamic Study Center.
Cathay Tea House … SW 35 Blvd (Butler Plaza)
I worked for a while at this Chinese restaurant located in a strip shopping center off Archer Road in southwest Gainesville. It was here that I learned of the great diversity of Chinese cuisine that’s out there, far above and beyond the processed La Choy and Chung King products on the grocery store shelves. There are so many Chinese foods I like (especially the way they were prepared at Cathay Tea House) but my favorites are Sichuan eggplant, Hunan duck, hot and sour soup, and fried rice. The dining room there was cozy, dark, and comfortable. Cathay Tea House is, like Gordy’s is with subs, the standard that I compare all Chinese restaurants with. And most come up short, although there are some real good ones around in Gainesville.
Wuv’s Hamburgers … NW 13th street near UF
Wuv’s was a Florida hamburger chain that lasted from the late 1970s until it filed for bankruptcy in 1981. It was known, not only for its burgers, but also for its fries with the skins on them, chili, and fried chicken. It should have been a bigger success than it was, but I guess the quality of the product is only one factor in whether a business ultimately survives. When Wuv’s closed its doors, Granny’s, a fried chicken eatery, replaced it. After that closed, Maui Teriyaki moved in. Now the entire west side of 13th Street, from University Avenue and up to NW 3rd Avenue, has been torn down in order to build more condo units (yes, that’s all we need in an already overcrowded area. Way to go, Gainesville!).
Lum’s … SW 13th street
Lum’s was an old restaurant chain. I remember one in Hollywood as well. They always advertised hot dogs steamed in beer, although I never took them up on that delicacy. I mainly used Lum’s around 1979-80 to have occasional breakfasts. The restaurant that replaced them was Cedar River Seafood, a good place to eat in its own right.
(old) Krystal … West University Ave
Right across the street from UF, this 24-hour establishment was my most oft-visited restaurant during the period when I lived on campus. They didn’t just serve those dinky almost nonexistent Krystal burgers, but also sold full breakfasts, big hamburgers, fried chicken, and chili. And their coffee was pretty good, too. Most of all, I liked just being able to sit in there with some books and study in that ambiance with a view of the campus. That particular Krystal shut down, and for a while there wasn’t any in Gainesville. Then, a few years ago they came back, with great fanfare, to a new location about three miles north on NW 13th Street. But the only hamburgers they were serving were those puny Krystals and minor variations thereof, with the rest of their former menu wiped out. I’ve noticed that they’ve lately begun to diversify their menu some, but they're still not the same as the 24-hour Krystal I grew to enjoy eating and studying at.
Sambo’s … SW Archer Road
This is the restaurant with the unfortunate name. The allusion for the name is meant to be to pancakes, of course, but a lot of people think the story of Sambo is racist. I didn’t think so when I was a kid, but then again, I guess it’s all in the way that one tells it. Anyway, I liked this restaurant, which was close to my apartment in the early 1980’s. I liked to sit up at the bar and have some coffee there and, occasionally, breakfast. After it closed for good, a similar restaurant called Season’s took its location; then a Jerry’s replaced Seasons for a brief time. Other restaurants (and a building-gutting fire) followed. Now the location has been rebuilt to house Starbucks, Moe’s, Panera, and Coldstone Ice Cream.
Jerry’s … NW 13th Street
Jerry’s had a similar menu to Sambo’s, but was closer to what was originally an all-night zone on NW 13 Street that had several stores and restaurants. I remember they had some kind of tettrazini dish that I liked a lot. Its location is now occupied by a restaurant with the strange name “The 43rd Street Deli on 13th Street”! I worked for a few months once as a cook at a Jerry’s in Leesburg, Florida. That Jerry’s went out of business soon after I left. I guess they couldn’t handle the loss!
The Eatery … NW 69th Boulevard
Between the Oaks Mall and I-75, just off Newberry Road was this great seafood restaurant. Its main attraction was its incredible seafood buffet, the likes of which I have not seen since. I remember dining there during the late 1980s. After it closed, a Red Lobster took its place.
Ryan’s Steak House … North Main Street
Simply the best all-around buffet I’ve seen in Gainesville, plus great to-order steaks, if that’s what you want. This was a place my family and I went to a lot in the 1990s. I think another restaurant took it over, but I’m not sure if it’s in business anymore.
Rax Roast Beef … SW Archer Road
I loved their roast beef sandwiches and baked potatoes. There was another Rax on NW 13th Street as well. I don’t know what happened to roast beef places like Rax and Dale’s. But I can’t speak for everyone else’s tastes, I suppose. The Rax location on SW Archer Road is occupied now by a Chick-Fil-A.
I could go on and on with this topic. But I did go over the restaurants I missed the most. There are some that are gone that I don’t miss, though, but it’s probably for the best that I don’t bring them up.
Friday, June 8, 2007
Whatever, Coach Donovan
Early this past Sunday morning, I posted an entry wishing Gator basketball head coach Billy Donovan the best with his new position as Orlando Magic head coach. Well, less then a day later, he decided that he didn’t want to job he had just signed the contract for and wanted to come back to the University of Florida. That complicated things, to say the least. Now the Magic have to figure out what they’re going to do with the contract, what they’re going to do about hiring another coach, and what they’re going to do about all those Magic fans who rushed in to buy season tickets because they thought Donovan was going to coach there. From the UF side, it seems pretty clear that Athletic Director Jeremy Foley has graciously welcomed back his two-time national championship coach. But Donovan, in first clearly committing himself to a different job and then backing out, did harm, in my opinion, to his old associate Anthony Grant, who had expressed interest in the then-open Gator coaching position and was on the verge of an interview with Foley when Donovan called the UF AD to express his misgivings about the Magic and that he wanted to come back. Now Grant has to forgo the great salary increase he would have had with Florida and then go back and face his current school, Virginia Commonwealth, who must be having their own thoughts about his loyalty to them. So there’s no doubt that Billy Donovan’s image, so positive immediately after his two NCAA titles, has been considerably tarnished.
And I’m very tired of this ongoing soap opera. It’s the off-season as far as college basketball is concerned. I don’t know what all is going to come out of this controversy, and frankly, I don’t care. So Donovan is coming back to coach the Gators. Okay, whoopee. I’m sure I’ll root for them when they actually start playing next season. But I’ve given it some thought and have come to the conclusion that Anthony Grant would have been a great head coach (which he already is at VCU). When he was at UF before, he was instrumental in developing the players that directly contributed to the Gators’ great successes. It’s a shame he had a wonderful opportunity like this presented to him, only to have it suddenly snatched away because of the actions of his supposed friend. Whatever, Coach Donovan. So today you want to be a Gator. What are you going to want to be tomorrow? We're all waiting with baited breath...NOT! Regardless what happens, I think I’m going to take a vacation from UF basketball and its “whatever” coach until there is actually Gator basketball being played.
And I’m very tired of this ongoing soap opera. It’s the off-season as far as college basketball is concerned. I don’t know what all is going to come out of this controversy, and frankly, I don’t care. So Donovan is coming back to coach the Gators. Okay, whoopee. I’m sure I’ll root for them when they actually start playing next season. But I’ve given it some thought and have come to the conclusion that Anthony Grant would have been a great head coach (which he already is at VCU). When he was at UF before, he was instrumental in developing the players that directly contributed to the Gators’ great successes. It’s a shame he had a wonderful opportunity like this presented to him, only to have it suddenly snatched away because of the actions of his supposed friend. Whatever, Coach Donovan. So today you want to be a Gator. What are you going to want to be tomorrow? We're all waiting with baited breath...NOT! Regardless what happens, I think I’m going to take a vacation from UF basketball and its “whatever” coach until there is actually Gator basketball being played.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Running and Running Blogs
I have discovered that one of my favorite types of blogs to visit on the Web is the running blog. The people who write these blogs are, for the most part, running enthusiasts who write about their training, races, and general thoughts about running and what it means to them. There are some running blogs that are usually updated daily, but most of the ones I’ve found are done in a sporadic fashion. And sometimes I’ll connect with a blog whose last entry was in 2005 or 2006, giving the impression that its author has moved on to other interests. But there are other blogs that have more or less daily entries. As long as it looks like the blog is still more or less active, then I’ll look at it from time to time. There is a lot of good advice out there, and the best of it comes from runners offering their personal testimonies about their own experiences and strategies, which cover many topics, such as types of shoes, workout schedules, running styles, aerobic/anaerobic factors in training, terrains & courses, and training for different types of races (or just training for fitness).
I’m interested in running blogs because I was once a runner myself (not a very fast one, though) when I was a bit younger. The period I was the most active in was 1973-1976, when I was 16-19 years old. The fastest mile I ran then was 5:25 and the longest distance I ran without stopping was fifteen miles. I’ve started it up again recently, going very gradually at first to avoid tearing anything. I’m not sure how far I want to go with my resumed running, but from time to time it would be fun to enter at least a 5K (five kilometer) race just to see my name and time posted in public sometimes. I started my training on May 14 with a quarter-mile run on a treadmill. I’ve been doing this since then, always spacing runs two or three days apart and going a little faster each time. I’m just increased the distance to a half mile, starting on June 1. Yesterday, I went out and bought a comfortable, though inexpensive pair of running shoes, which I felt would be necessary before I started running longer distances. I doubt that I’ll start my own running blog, but instead will just write about my running progress from time to time on this one.
I’m interested in running blogs because I was once a runner myself (not a very fast one, though) when I was a bit younger. The period I was the most active in was 1973-1976, when I was 16-19 years old. The fastest mile I ran then was 5:25 and the longest distance I ran without stopping was fifteen miles. I’ve started it up again recently, going very gradually at first to avoid tearing anything. I’m not sure how far I want to go with my resumed running, but from time to time it would be fun to enter at least a 5K (five kilometer) race just to see my name and time posted in public sometimes. I started my training on May 14 with a quarter-mile run on a treadmill. I’ve been doing this since then, always spacing runs two or three days apart and going a little faster each time. I’m just increased the distance to a half mile, starting on June 1. Yesterday, I went out and bought a comfortable, though inexpensive pair of running shoes, which I felt would be necessary before I started running longer distances. I doubt that I’ll start my own running blog, but instead will just write about my running progress from time to time on this one.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
The Strange Case of the Bird People
Back when I was a kid, in 1969, my family started, in a modest way, to participate in the interesting hobby of birdwatching. It wasn’t that we would go traveling out in the wild with binoculars and cameras; all we did was throw bread crumbs and birdseed on the ground directly in front of the “observation window” from our dining room that looked out on the north end of our back yard, and then see what kinds of birds would show up. And they came, all right! House sparrows, grackles, mockingbirds, shrikes, cardinals, catbirds, cowbirds, blue jays, red-winged blackbirds, and mourning doves were our regular “customers”, with Baltimore orioles, robins, and cedar waxwings coming by on a more seasonal basis. One thing they all had in common: between pecks at the food, they all spent an inordinate amount of time looking around them. That shouldn’t be surprising, since they obviously needed to be on the watch for predators (mainly cats). But I think they were also looking around at each other. Most everyone has seen this phenomenon with birds. But it also exists with some people. Regardless where I go or what I am doing, there seems to be people out there, whom I (tongue-in-cheek) dub “bird people”, who spend more time and effort minding everyone else’s business than their own. Come to think of it, they may actually believe that everyone else’s business IS their own. Not only are these people more prone to spreading and receiving personal gossip, especially that of a malicious nature, but they actually physically resemble birds in that they cannot be engaged in any activity for more than a few seconds at a time without looking around them to see what others are doing. And if there’s no one around? Well, they just may have to find an excuse to go wander around a little.
There may be a little of this “bird people” in all of us in that we want to fit in wherever we go and not make fools of ourselves in the company of others. The way to do this is to observe others so that we can know how to conform to our social environment, at least to a point. Also, humans are social creatures who have a natural interest in what’s going on around them. But taken to an extreme, the “bird person” sees keeping tabs on everybody as a form of manipulative personal power that gives him or her the feeling of security that comes from being in charge of judging others. I’ve gotten to where I can pick out this personality trait within minutes of meeting someone. And I don’t think I need to say how objectionable I think it is. Should I disdain these people, or just pity them? Or throw birdseed at them? Or am I just overreacting, with this whole line of argument strictly “for the birds”?
There may be a little of this “bird people” in all of us in that we want to fit in wherever we go and not make fools of ourselves in the company of others. The way to do this is to observe others so that we can know how to conform to our social environment, at least to a point. Also, humans are social creatures who have a natural interest in what’s going on around them. But taken to an extreme, the “bird person” sees keeping tabs on everybody as a form of manipulative personal power that gives him or her the feeling of security that comes from being in charge of judging others. I’ve gotten to where I can pick out this personality trait within minutes of meeting someone. And I don’t think I need to say how objectionable I think it is. Should I disdain these people, or just pity them? Or throw birdseed at them? Or am I just overreacting, with this whole line of argument strictly “for the birds”?
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Favorite Songs: #12 to #11
#12 Destination Unknown by the Missing Persons (from Spring Session M, 1982)
More than any other song, Destination Unknown captures for me the spirit of the New Wave movement in popular music, something that, in light of the disco “dark ages” of preceding years, I’ll be forever grateful for. Missing Persons was a west-coast band that dressed outlandishly in their performances, especially lead singer Dale Bozzio. While this group’s appearance was, in my opinion, tacky and comical, the production they used in their studio recordings was very refined and professional. In late 1982, they came out with two successive single hits, Words and Destination Unknown. Words, which I also liked a lot, featured Bozzio showing off her tremendous vocal range, with an occasional wink of an eye to classic cartoon character Betty Boop’s singing style. The longer of the two songs, it was about the frustration of someone who felt she could get no one to listen to her or care. I preferred the latter tune, Destination Unknown. Shorter and more repetitious, it nevertheless connected with me on a deeper level, conveying a mood of mystery and excitement about life’s courses. Missing Persons, despite these two wonderful songs, never really took off as a major international band the way that its contemporary, Blondie, did. And its videos were so shallow and silly that they were embarrassing to watch. But during its peak popularity in late 1982, Missing Persons, in my opinion, was the best New Wave band around.
#11 Number Nine Dream by John Lennon (from Walls and Bridges, 1974)
John Lennon and I go back to 1964, when I used to love hearing him scream out songs like Twist and Shout, Slow Down, Money, and Rock and Roll Music. Later on, songs like A Day in the Life, Doctor Robert, Tomorrow Never Knows, I am the Walrus, Strawberry Fields Forever, Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey (my favorite long-title song), and Across the Universe were all basically John Lennon contributions to the Beatles that are favorites of mine. I think that, looking back on their careers, John Lennon was the Beatle who had the most profoundly significant solo career, this in spite of the fact that he was in self-imposed retirement from 1976-79 and then murdered in late 1980. If I were to make up a “Top Ten” of my favorite solo Beatle works, George Harrison would have a couple on it and John Lennon would have the rest. Songs like Instant Karma, Working Class Hero, Gimme Some Truth, Oh Yoko, Mind Games, Watching the Wheels, and Nobody Told Me (released three years after his death) were all classics that only grew in stature through time. But Number Nine Dream was his best. Although this song had a Phil Spector feel to it, it was Lennon who produced it as well as the other tracks on his acclaimed Walls and Bridges album, pouring out his sensitive, mystical side in this beautiful, slow, dreamy piece. Ah! böwakawa, poussé, poussé…
Next Favorite Songs: #10 to #9
More than any other song, Destination Unknown captures for me the spirit of the New Wave movement in popular music, something that, in light of the disco “dark ages” of preceding years, I’ll be forever grateful for. Missing Persons was a west-coast band that dressed outlandishly in their performances, especially lead singer Dale Bozzio. While this group’s appearance was, in my opinion, tacky and comical, the production they used in their studio recordings was very refined and professional. In late 1982, they came out with two successive single hits, Words and Destination Unknown. Words, which I also liked a lot, featured Bozzio showing off her tremendous vocal range, with an occasional wink of an eye to classic cartoon character Betty Boop’s singing style. The longer of the two songs, it was about the frustration of someone who felt she could get no one to listen to her or care. I preferred the latter tune, Destination Unknown. Shorter and more repetitious, it nevertheless connected with me on a deeper level, conveying a mood of mystery and excitement about life’s courses. Missing Persons, despite these two wonderful songs, never really took off as a major international band the way that its contemporary, Blondie, did. And its videos were so shallow and silly that they were embarrassing to watch. But during its peak popularity in late 1982, Missing Persons, in my opinion, was the best New Wave band around.
#11 Number Nine Dream by John Lennon (from Walls and Bridges, 1974)
John Lennon and I go back to 1964, when I used to love hearing him scream out songs like Twist and Shout, Slow Down, Money, and Rock and Roll Music. Later on, songs like A Day in the Life, Doctor Robert, Tomorrow Never Knows, I am the Walrus, Strawberry Fields Forever, Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey (my favorite long-title song), and Across the Universe were all basically John Lennon contributions to the Beatles that are favorites of mine. I think that, looking back on their careers, John Lennon was the Beatle who had the most profoundly significant solo career, this in spite of the fact that he was in self-imposed retirement from 1976-79 and then murdered in late 1980. If I were to make up a “Top Ten” of my favorite solo Beatle works, George Harrison would have a couple on it and John Lennon would have the rest. Songs like Instant Karma, Working Class Hero, Gimme Some Truth, Oh Yoko, Mind Games, Watching the Wheels, and Nobody Told Me (released three years after his death) were all classics that only grew in stature through time. But Number Nine Dream was his best. Although this song had a Phil Spector feel to it, it was Lennon who produced it as well as the other tracks on his acclaimed Walls and Bridges album, pouring out his sensitive, mystical side in this beautiful, slow, dreamy piece. Ah! böwakawa, poussé, poussé…
Next Favorite Songs: #10 to #9
Monday, June 4, 2007
Wild Adventures
A few days ago, a group of us went to Wild Adventures, a theme park located a few miles southwest of Valdosta, Georgia. On the trip northward on I-75 to the park, the smoke level in the area kept increasing to point where it appeared that just walking around outside would be hazardous to our health. But once we were there, the air seemed a bit better. Once we got into the park, it was time to seek out the all-too-familiar rides and have another go on them. The first ride that we went on was Bugout, a rickety old roller coaster (actually, most of the rides there seemed rickety and old) that steers you around on a high plateau on top in very sharp turns that make you feel that the car you’re in will tip over the edge. After that part, Bugout goes through a few steep drops and then, it’s over. After finishing that ride, we went over to Power Surge, a tilting, inverting, and rotating ride that is probably the scariest looking ride in the park from ground level. It is one of my favorites. On the newest ride they have, the Gauntlet, we sat strapped in a little compartment, which was swung back and forth faster and faster, higher and higher, until we felt as if we would rise out of our seats and out of the compartment (if we weren’t restrained). Then it slowed down and ended. Next we walked over and rode their wooden roller coaster Cheetah, the most bone-rattling coaster I’ve experienced. Then we rode Double Shot, which I jokingly dub the “slide rule”, your typical vertical “raise ‘em fast and lower ‘em faster” kind of ride. Some rides (Yo-Yo, Inverter, and Boomerang, and Geronimo) were inoperative. Later my party split up (some wanted to try the water park Splash Island) and the rest of us went back and tried some of the other rides such as Swingin’ Safari, Pharaoh’s Fury, Ant Farm, and Aviator (my other favorite ride along with Power Surge). There were several rides I skipped on this trip because we just didn’t have that much time. Despite this, I became exhausted walking around Wild Adventures and was relieved to be back in the car homeward.
I have mixed feelings about visiting theme parks like this. On the one hand, driving there and back (although this time I was fortunate that someone else drived), along with all of the walking through the park and having to wait in (sometimes long) lines for some rides is very grueling. On the other hand, I deeply enjoy the actual rides once I’m on them. I wish there was a special recliner-like chair I could get that simulated the sensations I would get on rides (such as drops, lifts, and turns). I’d wear a special helmet that had a surround-viewing screen within it. Then I’d punch in the code for the ride I wanted on a special console and sit back and experience whichever ride I selected sitting in this special (albeit imaginary) chair in my own living room, without needing once to set foot (or tire) on asphalt or concrete. The best of both worlds, and without the smoke or lines!
I have mixed feelings about visiting theme parks like this. On the one hand, driving there and back (although this time I was fortunate that someone else drived), along with all of the walking through the park and having to wait in (sometimes long) lines for some rides is very grueling. On the other hand, I deeply enjoy the actual rides once I’m on them. I wish there was a special recliner-like chair I could get that simulated the sensations I would get on rides (such as drops, lifts, and turns). I’d wear a special helmet that had a surround-viewing screen within it. Then I’d punch in the code for the ride I wanted on a special console and sit back and experience whichever ride I selected sitting in this special (albeit imaginary) chair in my own living room, without needing once to set foot (or tire) on asphalt or concrete. The best of both worlds, and without the smoke or lines!
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Best Wishes, Coach Donovan
A couple of days ago, two-time defending national champion University of Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan decided to leave UF to pursue coaching on the professional level. He is joining the NBA’s Orlando Magic as their new head coach with a five-year contract exceeding twenty-five million dollars. It is sad that he is leaving, but for his sake, this was the perfect time for him to take such an action, with his recent incredible two-year championship run giving him the optimum prospects for moving up in his career. I appreciate that he turned down an earlier offer given him to coach at the University of Kentucky. Not that I have anything against UK, but I would not have wanted my own school’s former coach as a rival coach in the same division of the same conference. That’s already going on in football, with former Gator coach Steve Spurrier coaching South Carolina.
I wrote in an earlier entry how I wasn’t really following the Magic. Now, given its new coach, I’m going to have to reconsider that. I’d love to see some of the former Gator star players get on the Magic roster, but since Orlando has no first round pick in the upcoming draft, that will only happen through a trade or if someone like Taureen Green or Chris Richards gets selected by them. They were good enough to get into the playoffs this past season, and it will be interesting to see what Billy Donovan will be able to do with them to make them better.
As for the Gators, they are currently seeking Virginia Commonwealth coach Anthony Grant to take Donovan’s place (and with his highest recommendations). Grant worked with Donovan for several years at UF as assistant coach, including their first national championship season in 2005-06. I don’t know how it will all turn out; getting Coach Grant on board would go a long way toward reassuring the current Gator basketball players and the new recruits that they will be able to continue playing in a top-quality program with a sense of continuity. So, I’m definitely rooting for him. I just hope people around here give him some time (if he’s hired, that is) to develop the Gators into a championship-caliber team without making undue comparisons with his predecessor.
I wrote in an earlier entry how I wasn’t really following the Magic. Now, given its new coach, I’m going to have to reconsider that. I’d love to see some of the former Gator star players get on the Magic roster, but since Orlando has no first round pick in the upcoming draft, that will only happen through a trade or if someone like Taureen Green or Chris Richards gets selected by them. They were good enough to get into the playoffs this past season, and it will be interesting to see what Billy Donovan will be able to do with them to make them better.
As for the Gators, they are currently seeking Virginia Commonwealth coach Anthony Grant to take Donovan’s place (and with his highest recommendations). Grant worked with Donovan for several years at UF as assistant coach, including their first national championship season in 2005-06. I don’t know how it will all turn out; getting Coach Grant on board would go a long way toward reassuring the current Gator basketball players and the new recruits that they will be able to continue playing in a top-quality program with a sense of continuity. So, I’m definitely rooting for him. I just hope people around here give him some time (if he’s hired, that is) to develop the Gators into a championship-caliber team without making undue comparisons with his predecessor.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Commentary and Interpretation
When surfing around the TV dial, one of the types of programming I often stop at and watch for a while is commentary, and there’s plenty of it. It’s good to hear all sides of an issue, even if I know that I may vehemently disagree with some of them. Even with these, though, there is usually a kernel of truth or a valid concern that underlies them. And knowing what motivates people to have such differing points of view is the beginning step in reconciling them with each other to form a reasonable synthesis of opinion.
The best sources of opinion on TV are the C-Span channels because those running them allow a wide span of diverse opinions to be expressed, while giving the speakers enough time (not just sound bites) to express them. Sometimes, on the cable news channels, I can hear some good opinions being espoused, but with these I have a problem with supposedly unbiased news reporting being mixed together so seamlessly with the editorializing. I want my news straightforward. If I want to hear different reactions to a story, I can then go somewhere else for that.
There is special type of commentary around that I have little use for, and that is interpretation, particularly of speeches. Just look at those Geico Insurance commercials where a lady is giving a testimonial about how good Geico is, with somebody like Burt Bacharach or Little Richard sitting next to her giving his own comical interpretation of her experience. Some sort of interpretation is necessary, like sign language or foreign language interpretation. But it’s really bothersome for me to sit through a speech, be it by the President or another speaker, and then have to listen to someone else tell me what he said. And usually those performing this annoying task focus in on small portions of the speech to make a big deal about. It’s one thing for someone to give their opinion about something; that’s what I do all the time on my blog. But it’s another thing for someone to tell me what I just heard, as if I am unable to assimilate the speech myself!
Interpretation carries over into other areas besides public speeches. In religion, the interpretation of scriptures has become a pervasive element in our contemporary religious culture. Apparently, it’s not enough for someone to read the Bible, the Quran, or some other religion’s scripture; he apparently must also have someone telling him what he just read. Now I have no problem with someone analyzing or commenting on scriptures. What I object to is for some self-appointed “holy person” to dictate to me what these scriptures must mean or else I’m in error and oppose God! In other words, I don’t need a buffer between me and what I’m reading. After all, isn’t the original author of any scripture supposedly writing his own interpretation of a revelation to him from God? Why would I need a “second interpretation”?! I suspect, in some cases, that the religious interpreter may have a agenda to promote that involves overemphasis on some parts of scripture and underemphasis on others in order support the interpreter’s own viewpoints. It’s true that, like the Ethiopian in Acts 8:26-40, I may reach a passage in my reading that I don’t understand. Then I might ask someone what they believed it meant. But even then, I would still characterize their take on it as no more or less than their opinion, which I could accept or reject based on whether it made sense to me.
The best sources of opinion on TV are the C-Span channels because those running them allow a wide span of diverse opinions to be expressed, while giving the speakers enough time (not just sound bites) to express them. Sometimes, on the cable news channels, I can hear some good opinions being espoused, but with these I have a problem with supposedly unbiased news reporting being mixed together so seamlessly with the editorializing. I want my news straightforward. If I want to hear different reactions to a story, I can then go somewhere else for that.
There is special type of commentary around that I have little use for, and that is interpretation, particularly of speeches. Just look at those Geico Insurance commercials where a lady is giving a testimonial about how good Geico is, with somebody like Burt Bacharach or Little Richard sitting next to her giving his own comical interpretation of her experience. Some sort of interpretation is necessary, like sign language or foreign language interpretation. But it’s really bothersome for me to sit through a speech, be it by the President or another speaker, and then have to listen to someone else tell me what he said. And usually those performing this annoying task focus in on small portions of the speech to make a big deal about. It’s one thing for someone to give their opinion about something; that’s what I do all the time on my blog. But it’s another thing for someone to tell me what I just heard, as if I am unable to assimilate the speech myself!
Interpretation carries over into other areas besides public speeches. In religion, the interpretation of scriptures has become a pervasive element in our contemporary religious culture. Apparently, it’s not enough for someone to read the Bible, the Quran, or some other religion’s scripture; he apparently must also have someone telling him what he just read. Now I have no problem with someone analyzing or commenting on scriptures. What I object to is for some self-appointed “holy person” to dictate to me what these scriptures must mean or else I’m in error and oppose God! In other words, I don’t need a buffer between me and what I’m reading. After all, isn’t the original author of any scripture supposedly writing his own interpretation of a revelation to him from God? Why would I need a “second interpretation”?! I suspect, in some cases, that the religious interpreter may have a agenda to promote that involves overemphasis on some parts of scripture and underemphasis on others in order support the interpreter’s own viewpoints. It’s true that, like the Ethiopian in Acts 8:26-40, I may reach a passage in my reading that I don’t understand. Then I might ask someone what they believed it meant. But even then, I would still characterize their take on it as no more or less than their opinion, which I could accept or reject based on whether it made sense to me.
Friday, June 1, 2007
School Planetarium
In past entries, I’ve referred to the school I attended from the fourth through twelfth grades. Actually, this consisted of two schools, both run by the same group but with one as the grammar school (first through sixth grades) and the other the junior high and high school (seventh through twelfth grades), separated from each other (then) by a large field (the site that they were built on was originally an airfield). The high school campus had a small planetarium on it, at the end of one of the science buildings. I vaguely remember at one time in grammar school walking across the field with my class to the high school side to see a show at that planetarium. This was during the Gemini-early Apollo period during the late 1960s before we landed men on the moon. I thought then that it was pretty cool having a planetarium like that. After actually beginning junior high over there, I rarely had any opportunity to see any shows there, though. As a matter of fact, although the planetarium remained there with a faculty member assigned to direct it throughout my tenure at this school, the last show that I (or anyone else, as far as I know) was given an opportunity to attend was during my eighth grade. That means that for a period of about four years, the planetarium just sat there unused. I heard that it had fallen into disrepair as well. The teacher in charge of this place, at least through my junior year, was an elderly gentleman who decided at some point to take the visually impaired students on campus under his wing. That last planetarium show I saw was actually produced by them. From the ninth through almost all of the eleventh grade I neither saw nor heard anything from him or his precious planetarium. Then, in late April 1973 I went down with my sister and a friend of hers to the Miami Space Transit Planetarium, where we saw a show, narrated by Leonard Nimoy (pre-recorded), about the future of the space program now that the Apollo missions had ended. That got me interested in astronomy again, and the next day at school I walked into the planetarium to discuss it with the planetarium’s director. Only he was too angry too discuss anything like astronomy with me. Seems that he was retiring a little earlier than planned, and all he wanted to do was talk about how no one showed any interest in his work and that we students were just too apathetic and unworthy of this fine planetarium with its poor unrecognized director. All I did then was stand there and listen sympathetically to him ranting and raving, and I was angry, too, that all those students out there weren’t pounding down his door to “get involved” somehow. It was only years later when, looking back on things, that I came to the conclusion that this man, whom I hadn’t seen for years at a stretch, could have simply stepped out of his comfortable little “hobbit hole” of a planetarium and engaged in conversation with some of those “apathetic” students out there just sitting around on benches between classes and on their break periods. But he decided early on that he would only devote himself to a few visually-impaired students and ignore the rest! Feeling the way I do now, if I could have relived our final conversation, I would have had a few fine morsels of rebuke to lay on that dude!
Early in my senior year, I went back to the planetarium to see about joining up with the school’s astronomy club. The planetarium had a new director, a science teacher who was only too happy to leave his classrooms to set up shop there as the new “resident hobbit”. And the planetarium was still broken. The last I saw of it, one of the nearly blind students had a giant swath of electrical wires pulled out of the projector’s main component and was switching some connections around as if he knew what he was doing. And the new director was just placidly letting him play around with this expensive equipment like it was a toy. That aside, for a few weeks at least, it was fun to hang around some fellow students who were interested in the night sky. Unfortunately, I missed a few weeks of school that fall because of an operation I had to undergo. After coming back, I let the astronomy club go and concentrated on other things to close out my senior year there. But I did enjoy it, though. It’s too bad the people in charge there left the planetarium in such a state of neglect and disrepair for so long. Even today, I wonder whether anyone ever got it going again.
Early in my senior year, I went back to the planetarium to see about joining up with the school’s astronomy club. The planetarium had a new director, a science teacher who was only too happy to leave his classrooms to set up shop there as the new “resident hobbit”. And the planetarium was still broken. The last I saw of it, one of the nearly blind students had a giant swath of electrical wires pulled out of the projector’s main component and was switching some connections around as if he knew what he was doing. And the new director was just placidly letting him play around with this expensive equipment like it was a toy. That aside, for a few weeks at least, it was fun to hang around some fellow students who were interested in the night sky. Unfortunately, I missed a few weeks of school that fall because of an operation I had to undergo. After coming back, I let the astronomy club go and concentrated on other things to close out my senior year there. But I did enjoy it, though. It’s too bad the people in charge there left the planetarium in such a state of neglect and disrepair for so long. Even today, I wonder whether anyone ever got it going again.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Namesakes
During the mid-1960s in England, there was a young rock singer/songwriter who aspired to fame. He was very talented and knew that, with determination, he would make a name for himself. And he did, but not initially in the way he had planned. For across the Atlantic, in America, another British entertainer, actor Davy Jones, had passed his audition and joined up with a new TV series designed to parody the Beatles (as they were in A Hard Day’s Night) by introducing a band called “The Monkees”. The Monkees were not only a big TV hit, but also sold many records and had a very large fan base (I was one of them). Each of the group’s members became famous and their names were common knowledge. The young man in England, whose name just happened to be David Jones, didn’t want to play second fiddle to someone else who had the same name as him, so he changed his name to David Bowie. The rest is rock ‘n roll history.
Why do I bring this up? Well, like many people who surf the web, I typed my own name into a search engine to see what came out. And I discovered that there are a few people out there who go by my name. There is a Bill Irwin who is a Tony Award-winning actor and professional clown. Billy Irwin, a professional boxer, has done quite well in his field. In a Pennsylvania college, you can find a philosophy professor named William Irwin who specializes in studying the philosophical ramifications of popular culture. And there are more of my namesakes out there as well. Come to think of it, outside the Internet, I know of the existence of several other William Irwins besides me. And now I have something important to say: I am not, never have been, nor will I ever be any of these William Irwins! But I do admit to being a card-carrying William Irwin!
With the ability of the Internet to connect so pervasively throughout this country and the rest of the world, it should be no surprise that people besides me would keep running across others with their own names. And the temptation to compare oneself with his or her namesake is strong. But, at least from my point of view, this is just something that goes with the times and the technology. I accept it, but to give myself just a little bit of difference from the others, I will use my middle initial (M) with my name whenever I’m doing my blog. For first names, I use either William, Bill, or Billy, and from time to time may change that on my blog ID. I never thought that my name was all that common, but I guess when you consider the millions of people out there, the odds favor there being a few of them. Nevertheless, it is a bit disconcerting to see people out there completely unrelated to me with my name, although I’m not going to do anything drastic like David Jones did!
Why do I bring this up? Well, like many people who surf the web, I typed my own name into a search engine to see what came out. And I discovered that there are a few people out there who go by my name. There is a Bill Irwin who is a Tony Award-winning actor and professional clown. Billy Irwin, a professional boxer, has done quite well in his field. In a Pennsylvania college, you can find a philosophy professor named William Irwin who specializes in studying the philosophical ramifications of popular culture. And there are more of my namesakes out there as well. Come to think of it, outside the Internet, I know of the existence of several other William Irwins besides me. And now I have something important to say: I am not, never have been, nor will I ever be any of these William Irwins! But I do admit to being a card-carrying William Irwin!
With the ability of the Internet to connect so pervasively throughout this country and the rest of the world, it should be no surprise that people besides me would keep running across others with their own names. And the temptation to compare oneself with his or her namesake is strong. But, at least from my point of view, this is just something that goes with the times and the technology. I accept it, but to give myself just a little bit of difference from the others, I will use my middle initial (M) with my name whenever I’m doing my blog. For first names, I use either William, Bill, or Billy, and from time to time may change that on my blog ID. I never thought that my name was all that common, but I guess when you consider the millions of people out there, the odds favor there being a few of them. Nevertheless, it is a bit disconcerting to see people out there completely unrelated to me with my name, although I’m not going to do anything drastic like David Jones did!
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Reality TV
I am apparently one of those poor lost souls who totally miss the appeal of the tidal wave of “reality” shows that have swept through television programming during the past few years. I put that in quotations because I have difficulty understanding how it is “reality” that the concept of being a survivor is based on how popular one is within a group. Being “voted off” a show is complete hogwash to my evidently unenlightened mind.
There is a danger that I perceive exists in just sitting in front of a TV set and surfing the channels without any purpose to what I am watching. The fear is that some day I’m going to look at the times when I did this and regret the time I wasted when I could have been engaged in more meaningful activities. That’s a fear of mine, but the idea that sitting for hours on end watching asinine “reality” shows (whose titles don’t even deserve passing mention) is a complete waste is a complete certainty!
Having spewed out my venom regarding this atrocious plague of bad programming on my television set, I would like to raise a caveat regarding reality TV. If enjoying this stuff helps other people to cope on some level with their lives, then that’s good. Showing people screwing up in something, whether it’s real or scripted, and then showing them recovering from their failure and getting on with their lives is a very valuable lesson in what life must be about. Some people are prone to extremely harsh self-judgment and think that it’s the end of the world for them if they fail or are humiliated in something. And one thing for sure is that reality TV is full of programs showing people failing in just about any way conceivable! To the extent that people portrayed on these shows assess their mistakes, adjust their behavior to avoid repeating them, and then act boldly to get it “right” the next time, then it is a worthwhile viewing experience that can give some in our society the hope that they, too, are bigger than their failings. There, I did it. I said something good about reality TV. Now back to the surfing!
There is a danger that I perceive exists in just sitting in front of a TV set and surfing the channels without any purpose to what I am watching. The fear is that some day I’m going to look at the times when I did this and regret the time I wasted when I could have been engaged in more meaningful activities. That’s a fear of mine, but the idea that sitting for hours on end watching asinine “reality” shows (whose titles don’t even deserve passing mention) is a complete waste is a complete certainty!
Having spewed out my venom regarding this atrocious plague of bad programming on my television set, I would like to raise a caveat regarding reality TV. If enjoying this stuff helps other people to cope on some level with their lives, then that’s good. Showing people screwing up in something, whether it’s real or scripted, and then showing them recovering from their failure and getting on with their lives is a very valuable lesson in what life must be about. Some people are prone to extremely harsh self-judgment and think that it’s the end of the world for them if they fail or are humiliated in something. And one thing for sure is that reality TV is full of programs showing people failing in just about any way conceivable! To the extent that people portrayed on these shows assess their mistakes, adjust their behavior to avoid repeating them, and then act boldly to get it “right” the next time, then it is a worthwhile viewing experience that can give some in our society the hope that they, too, are bigger than their failings. There, I did it. I said something good about reality TV. Now back to the surfing!
More on Comments
I'd like to reiterate how I appreciate any comments that you, my reader, may have germane to any particular blog entry I may write (go back as far as you'd like). I welcome both agreement and dissent. I only ask any of you who decide to send a comment to please show genuine respect by not using this opportunity primarily as a plug for your own blog or to advertise your business. Any comment I receive like this will not be shown on my blog.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Favorite Songs: #15 to #13
Besides my all-time favorites list, at any given time there is always a song that is my favorite among those that are currently out there. My “current” favorite right now (and for several months, actually) is Starlight by Muse, a relatively subdued work of theirs that is sung with a lot of feeling. Muse is considered to be an independent/alternative rock band.
#15 Both Sides Now by Judy Collins (from Wildflowers,1967)
Both Sides Now was a big singles hit on the radio in 1968. Back then, I always called it “Clouds” because of the song’s first stanza. But it wasn’t one of my favorites then. As years passed by, it became one, though, primarily for two reasons. The first was Judy’s beautiful voice and the second was the song’s message: at various points of our lives, we think we have certain things like life and love (and even clouds) figured out, but then things always seem to develop that confuse our conclusions. Then we have to either enlarge our understanding or start all over. But that is all part of the process of maturing, isn’t it? And it may go a long way toward explaining why I wasn’t enraptured by this song during its heyday, when I was only eleven. In 1976, Judy Collins came out with Send in the Clowns, another tune which I like a lot.
#14 Message of Love by the Pretenders (from Pretenders II, 1981)
The antidote for all of the dreary songs that permeate the rock scene, Message of Love has the best self-described title I know. Pretenders singer/songwriter Chrissie Hynde has always been one of my favorite voices to listen to, and she doesn’t disappoint here, either. This song never became a big hit, although it should have. The lyrics and tone of the song are exuberant and exciting. There’s no way anyone can hear it without feeling at least a little bit better than before! Watch the video to Message of Love, too, if you want to see the whole band jamming away. I also like their songs Back on the Chain Gang and Middle of the Road (which sounds a bit too much like Dobie Gray’s old hit The In Crowd, though). Unfortunately, Rush Limbaugh ruined one of their songs (My City Was Gone) by using it as the lead-in piece for his radio show.
#13 Imitation of Life by REM (from Reveal, 2001)
Considering the long, illustrious career of this great Georgia band with their enormous catalogue of quality songs, it is ironic that my favorite of all of them would be Imitation of Life, a song recorded after REM had been in a state of decline for a while, at least in terms of their general popularity. I, on the other hand, thought that their CD Reveal was one of their best, and this tune was the best on it. It is the other song from the 2000’s on my list (besides 12:51 at #19). Imitation of Life has a dark and sad tone to it that I find irresistible. Avoid the ridiculous video, though, if at all possible. Other REM songs that I recommend are Stumble, South Central Rain, The Wrong Child, Half a World Away, Find the River, Let Me In, and Walk Unafraid. I guess you might conclude that I’m a fan of theirs. And I am, owning all of their studio works from their 1982 debut EP Chronic Town all the way through their latest CD Around the Sun (although I don’t quite “get” that one).
Next favorite songs: #12 to #11
#15 Both Sides Now by Judy Collins (from Wildflowers,1967)
Both Sides Now was a big singles hit on the radio in 1968. Back then, I always called it “Clouds” because of the song’s first stanza. But it wasn’t one of my favorites then. As years passed by, it became one, though, primarily for two reasons. The first was Judy’s beautiful voice and the second was the song’s message: at various points of our lives, we think we have certain things like life and love (and even clouds) figured out, but then things always seem to develop that confuse our conclusions. Then we have to either enlarge our understanding or start all over. But that is all part of the process of maturing, isn’t it? And it may go a long way toward explaining why I wasn’t enraptured by this song during its heyday, when I was only eleven. In 1976, Judy Collins came out with Send in the Clowns, another tune which I like a lot.
#14 Message of Love by the Pretenders (from Pretenders II, 1981)
The antidote for all of the dreary songs that permeate the rock scene, Message of Love has the best self-described title I know. Pretenders singer/songwriter Chrissie Hynde has always been one of my favorite voices to listen to, and she doesn’t disappoint here, either. This song never became a big hit, although it should have. The lyrics and tone of the song are exuberant and exciting. There’s no way anyone can hear it without feeling at least a little bit better than before! Watch the video to Message of Love, too, if you want to see the whole band jamming away. I also like their songs Back on the Chain Gang and Middle of the Road (which sounds a bit too much like Dobie Gray’s old hit The In Crowd, though). Unfortunately, Rush Limbaugh ruined one of their songs (My City Was Gone) by using it as the lead-in piece for his radio show.
#13 Imitation of Life by REM (from Reveal, 2001)
Considering the long, illustrious career of this great Georgia band with their enormous catalogue of quality songs, it is ironic that my favorite of all of them would be Imitation of Life, a song recorded after REM had been in a state of decline for a while, at least in terms of their general popularity. I, on the other hand, thought that their CD Reveal was one of their best, and this tune was the best on it. It is the other song from the 2000’s on my list (besides 12:51 at #19). Imitation of Life has a dark and sad tone to it that I find irresistible. Avoid the ridiculous video, though, if at all possible. Other REM songs that I recommend are Stumble, South Central Rain, The Wrong Child, Half a World Away, Find the River, Let Me In, and Walk Unafraid. I guess you might conclude that I’m a fan of theirs. And I am, owning all of their studio works from their 1982 debut EP Chronic Town all the way through their latest CD Around the Sun (although I don’t quite “get” that one).
Next favorite songs: #12 to #11
Monday, May 28, 2007
Victim as Aggressor
It is interesting to me how prevalent the tendency is for people to try as hard as possible to portray themselves as victims of some other party, and then use that self-portrayal as grounds for aggressive behavior. Here are some examples:
---A group of kids at a school bus stop interpret a shy kid’s demeanor as meaning that he thinks he’s better than them, so they pick on him “in retaliation”.
---A released prisoner feels such a victim of the system from the eight years of his incarceration that he goes out and kills eight innocent people, one for each year spent behind bars.
---A car going down the road slowly in the left (fast) lane causes the car behind it to miss a light. At the next opportunity, the “victimized” driver pulls up alongside the slow car and shouts obscenities at its driver.
---Because the United States has troops stationed on Saudi Arabian soil, this “victimization” of Muslims, in the view of some, justified hijacking and flying jet planes into World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing thousands.
---Because the U.S. was victimized by those terrorists, they are justified in going out and killing thousands more.
---Many people in Germany, after World War I, felt humiliated and victimized by the harsh conditions in the Treaty of Versailles. So, within a few years Adolf Hitler was promoted to power and began his nightmare rampage across Europe.
---The Soviet Union, at least in their propaganda, asserted that they occupied and controlled several East European countries under the Warsaw Pact because they had been so badly victimized by Germany and its allies during World War II, and that they would never let it happen again.
---The white supremacist organization Ku Klux Klan came into prominence in the South and later across the country because some people felt victimized by groups of other people that they perceived threatened them and their way of life.
---All of the conflicting sides in the Iraqi sectarian war see themselves as victims of the others who must be beaten down hard to prevent them from getting the upper hand.
---Countless assassinations have been committed by people who felt they had been victims, usually indirectly, supposedly betrayed by the ones they ended up killing (e.g. assassinations of Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, John Lennon, Anwar Sadat, Yitzhak Rabin, James Garfield, and Abraham Lincoln, to mention a few).
---In Yugoslavia during the 1990’s, Serbs, Croats, and Muslims all began to settle scores with each other from past conflicts as close as World War II and as distant as the Muslim Ottoman Empire’s invasion of this land in the fourteenth century. The Serbs, who considered themselves victims of both the Croats (seen by some of them as collaborators with the occupying Nazis in World War II) and the Muslims (for centuries, Serbs were subject to Ottoman rule, especially in Kosovo and Bosnia). And these historically victimized Serbs were the biggest aggressors in the conflict that broke out.
---In the mid-1990’s in Rwanda, the majority Hutus, feeling themselves to be an underclass to the traditionally more dominating but minority Tutsis, went on a genocidal rampage against them at the prompting of their Hutu leader.
---All blood feuds, be it the old Hatfields vs. the McCoys feud or the gangland feuds prevalent in organized crime, use victimization as the justification for further violence.
---The perpetrators of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing rationalized their atrocity by identifying with groups such as the western militias and sympathizing with David Koresh’s Waco cult, both supposedly persecuted and victimized by the Federal government.
The above examples vary in the degree of legitimacy of the aggressive actions taken as “reactions” to perceived victimization. Pure hate, I believe, is behind some of this, covered over with the pretense of following a principle. Another cause is the idea that what’s happened cannot be reversed, but by standing up to the perceived aggressor, it may be prevented from recurring in the future. And there is always the tit-for-tat rationale to explain some actions. Whatever the reasons, adding another link in the chain of aggression just makes it worse in the long run, regardless of whatever short-term benefits that may accrue. But what really gets my goat are the people that aren’t really victims of anything to speak of but go around acting as if they are anyway, apparently just to make others feel indebted to them somehow. But then again, there’s a little of that in most of us, isn’t there?
---A group of kids at a school bus stop interpret a shy kid’s demeanor as meaning that he thinks he’s better than them, so they pick on him “in retaliation”.
---A released prisoner feels such a victim of the system from the eight years of his incarceration that he goes out and kills eight innocent people, one for each year spent behind bars.
---A car going down the road slowly in the left (fast) lane causes the car behind it to miss a light. At the next opportunity, the “victimized” driver pulls up alongside the slow car and shouts obscenities at its driver.
---Because the United States has troops stationed on Saudi Arabian soil, this “victimization” of Muslims, in the view of some, justified hijacking and flying jet planes into World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing thousands.
---Because the U.S. was victimized by those terrorists, they are justified in going out and killing thousands more.
---Many people in Germany, after World War I, felt humiliated and victimized by the harsh conditions in the Treaty of Versailles. So, within a few years Adolf Hitler was promoted to power and began his nightmare rampage across Europe.
---The Soviet Union, at least in their propaganda, asserted that they occupied and controlled several East European countries under the Warsaw Pact because they had been so badly victimized by Germany and its allies during World War II, and that they would never let it happen again.
---The white supremacist organization Ku Klux Klan came into prominence in the South and later across the country because some people felt victimized by groups of other people that they perceived threatened them and their way of life.
---All of the conflicting sides in the Iraqi sectarian war see themselves as victims of the others who must be beaten down hard to prevent them from getting the upper hand.
---Countless assassinations have been committed by people who felt they had been victims, usually indirectly, supposedly betrayed by the ones they ended up killing (e.g. assassinations of Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, John Lennon, Anwar Sadat, Yitzhak Rabin, James Garfield, and Abraham Lincoln, to mention a few).
---In Yugoslavia during the 1990’s, Serbs, Croats, and Muslims all began to settle scores with each other from past conflicts as close as World War II and as distant as the Muslim Ottoman Empire’s invasion of this land in the fourteenth century. The Serbs, who considered themselves victims of both the Croats (seen by some of them as collaborators with the occupying Nazis in World War II) and the Muslims (for centuries, Serbs were subject to Ottoman rule, especially in Kosovo and Bosnia). And these historically victimized Serbs were the biggest aggressors in the conflict that broke out.
---In the mid-1990’s in Rwanda, the majority Hutus, feeling themselves to be an underclass to the traditionally more dominating but minority Tutsis, went on a genocidal rampage against them at the prompting of their Hutu leader.
---All blood feuds, be it the old Hatfields vs. the McCoys feud or the gangland feuds prevalent in organized crime, use victimization as the justification for further violence.
---The perpetrators of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing rationalized their atrocity by identifying with groups such as the western militias and sympathizing with David Koresh’s Waco cult, both supposedly persecuted and victimized by the Federal government.
The above examples vary in the degree of legitimacy of the aggressive actions taken as “reactions” to perceived victimization. Pure hate, I believe, is behind some of this, covered over with the pretense of following a principle. Another cause is the idea that what’s happened cannot be reversed, but by standing up to the perceived aggressor, it may be prevented from recurring in the future. And there is always the tit-for-tat rationale to explain some actions. Whatever the reasons, adding another link in the chain of aggression just makes it worse in the long run, regardless of whatever short-term benefits that may accrue. But what really gets my goat are the people that aren’t really victims of anything to speak of but go around acting as if they are anyway, apparently just to make others feel indebted to them somehow. But then again, there’s a little of that in most of us, isn’t there?
Sunday, May 27, 2007
The Miami Floridians
One day, during the fall of 1968, I picked up the newspaper and saw a funny cartoon drawing of a man dressed up like a stereotypical Florida tourist with sunglasses, dribbling a basketball with a big grin on his face. It was the announcement that, yes, the Miami Floridians had come to town! In the American Basketball Association’s inaugural season, 1967-68, they were originally the Minnesota Muskies and did rather well on the court (50-28) and rather poorly with their attendance. The Muskies had hired for their coach the old Minneapolis Lakers star Jim Pollard, and had assembled an impressive lineup, headed by Mel Daniels and Donnie Freeman, to represent their entry in the ABA’s bid to compete against the National Basketball Association on a major league level. The ABA became noted for its innovations, such as the three-point shot (not yet allowed in the NBA) and its red, white, and blue basketball. In spite of this, I was completely oblivious to the existence of the ABA during its first season; actually, come to think of it, I really wasn’t aware then of the NBA, either!
The Muskies’ owner decided, after one season, to pack up his team and send them down to Miami. Why they picked such a ridiculous name as “Floridians” is beyond me (can you imagine calling a team the New York New Yorkers? Wait a minute, the NFL has the Houston Texans!). But that’s what we were stuck with. I suppose that if enough people in South Florida had risen up in objection to it, it might have been changed. But there were very few down there who even knew of the Floridians’ existence, much less cared about them. I started following the Miami Floridians in the 1968-69 season almost from its beginning, which was a slow start for the team. They had dealt away Daniels to the Indiana Pacers, one of the four franchises that would survive to finally become part of the NBA. I was just fiddling around on my AM radio one evening and tuned in to 1450-WOCN in Miami, a weak 250-watt station usually devoted to playing “elevator” music full-time. But that night it was doing play-by-play of Miami’s game against Connie Hawkins and the Minnesota Pipers. The Pipers, it seemed, weren’t too happy with their location the previous year in Pittsburgh, so they moved right in to Minnesota as soon as the Muskies cleared out. But that didn’t work out either and they eventually moved back to Pittsburgh as the Condors. The Pipers started the season hot, just as they had ended the first season, and beat the Floridians that night. As the season wore on, I became more aware of Miami’s stars: Donnie Freeman, Skip Thoren, Les “Big Game” Hunter, Don Sidle, and Willie Murrell. And Coach Pollard, of course. It was hard sometimes to find articles about Miami’s game the previous day in its own hometown paper. They tended to be buried away in small spaces deep in the Sports section. The Floridians continued their slow start until they fell into a deep slump and found themselves in last place at 9-17. Then, seemingly out of the blue, they caught fire and went on a 23-8 run, finding themselves in first place at 32-25. The remainder of the season saw both ups and downs. The Miami Floridians finished second in their division (behind Indiana) with 43 wins and 35 losses, a standard they would never remotely approach for the rest of the franchise’s short existence. Miami beat the slumping Pipers in the first playoff round, but were creamed by Indiana, who went on to lose to Rick Barry’s Oakland Oaks (who moved to Washington, D.C. the next season) for the league’s championship. The next year, the Miami Floridians were promoted heavily in the local press, broadcast their games on powerful 50,000 watt 710-WGBS, and fell flat on their faces, finishing dead, dead last in the league. Coach Pollard was fired early that season and then hired to coach basketball at a small Ft. Lauderdale college. A few years later, in 1974, I began my first term at Broward Community College. To help fulfill my physical education requirements there, I took a conditioning class, knowing that I’d be doing a lot of running in it (I was heavily into running at the time). Guess who my instructor was in this class? Coach Pollard!
For the 1970-71 season, the ownership of the Floridians decided to fire the whole team and bring in players from other teams. Mack Calvin and Larry Jones made them more competitive than the previous year, but they never again had a winning season. Fan apathy in Miami, coupled with the lack of a decent place to play, gave impetus to the “next big thing”: the Floridians would play some of their home games in Tampa and elsewhere; henceforth the franchise would drop “Miami” and only be known as “The Floridians”! The only change in fan apathy that I noticed was my own increasing apathy toward them. The fact that none of their games were televised didn’t help, either.
So, my hometown franchise did not survive the ABA merger with the NBA. Only four franchises made it: the New Jersey Nets (formerly the New York Nets, formerly the New Jersey Americans), the San Antonio Spurs (formerly the Dallas Chaparrals), the Denver Nuggets (formerly the Denver Rockets), and the Indiana Pacers. I was glad to see these teams make it, but I was also saddened to see the Kentucky Colonels, a franchise with a history of exciting, winning basketball which had great fan support, relegated to a fond memory. They would have been my first choice for an ABA franchise to be assimilated into the NBA. This on top of the fact that they gave themselves a great nickname!
Nowadays, things in Miami have changed. The NBA’s Miami Heat has an adequate place to play in as well as decent media coverage and fan interest. But I moved away from that area many years before that franchise began and feel no loyalty at all to it. You would think that I’d be a big Orlando Magic fan because that’s the closest NBA city to Gainesville. But instead of that, in the last couple of years, I’ve become a fan of the Phoenix Suns with their exciting brand of offense under players like Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, and Shawn Marion. I don’t know whether they’ll win a championship anytime soon, but they are fun to watch! Alas, if only the Colonels had made it into the NBA instead of those obnoxious Spurs (who keep beating my Suns) …
The Muskies’ owner decided, after one season, to pack up his team and send them down to Miami. Why they picked such a ridiculous name as “Floridians” is beyond me (can you imagine calling a team the New York New Yorkers? Wait a minute, the NFL has the Houston Texans!). But that’s what we were stuck with. I suppose that if enough people in South Florida had risen up in objection to it, it might have been changed. But there were very few down there who even knew of the Floridians’ existence, much less cared about them. I started following the Miami Floridians in the 1968-69 season almost from its beginning, which was a slow start for the team. They had dealt away Daniels to the Indiana Pacers, one of the four franchises that would survive to finally become part of the NBA. I was just fiddling around on my AM radio one evening and tuned in to 1450-WOCN in Miami, a weak 250-watt station usually devoted to playing “elevator” music full-time. But that night it was doing play-by-play of Miami’s game against Connie Hawkins and the Minnesota Pipers. The Pipers, it seemed, weren’t too happy with their location the previous year in Pittsburgh, so they moved right in to Minnesota as soon as the Muskies cleared out. But that didn’t work out either and they eventually moved back to Pittsburgh as the Condors. The Pipers started the season hot, just as they had ended the first season, and beat the Floridians that night. As the season wore on, I became more aware of Miami’s stars: Donnie Freeman, Skip Thoren, Les “Big Game” Hunter, Don Sidle, and Willie Murrell. And Coach Pollard, of course. It was hard sometimes to find articles about Miami’s game the previous day in its own hometown paper. They tended to be buried away in small spaces deep in the Sports section. The Floridians continued their slow start until they fell into a deep slump and found themselves in last place at 9-17. Then, seemingly out of the blue, they caught fire and went on a 23-8 run, finding themselves in first place at 32-25. The remainder of the season saw both ups and downs. The Miami Floridians finished second in their division (behind Indiana) with 43 wins and 35 losses, a standard they would never remotely approach for the rest of the franchise’s short existence. Miami beat the slumping Pipers in the first playoff round, but were creamed by Indiana, who went on to lose to Rick Barry’s Oakland Oaks (who moved to Washington, D.C. the next season) for the league’s championship. The next year, the Miami Floridians were promoted heavily in the local press, broadcast their games on powerful 50,000 watt 710-WGBS, and fell flat on their faces, finishing dead, dead last in the league. Coach Pollard was fired early that season and then hired to coach basketball at a small Ft. Lauderdale college. A few years later, in 1974, I began my first term at Broward Community College. To help fulfill my physical education requirements there, I took a conditioning class, knowing that I’d be doing a lot of running in it (I was heavily into running at the time). Guess who my instructor was in this class? Coach Pollard!
For the 1970-71 season, the ownership of the Floridians decided to fire the whole team and bring in players from other teams. Mack Calvin and Larry Jones made them more competitive than the previous year, but they never again had a winning season. Fan apathy in Miami, coupled with the lack of a decent place to play, gave impetus to the “next big thing”: the Floridians would play some of their home games in Tampa and elsewhere; henceforth the franchise would drop “Miami” and only be known as “The Floridians”! The only change in fan apathy that I noticed was my own increasing apathy toward them. The fact that none of their games were televised didn’t help, either.
So, my hometown franchise did not survive the ABA merger with the NBA. Only four franchises made it: the New Jersey Nets (formerly the New York Nets, formerly the New Jersey Americans), the San Antonio Spurs (formerly the Dallas Chaparrals), the Denver Nuggets (formerly the Denver Rockets), and the Indiana Pacers. I was glad to see these teams make it, but I was also saddened to see the Kentucky Colonels, a franchise with a history of exciting, winning basketball which had great fan support, relegated to a fond memory. They would have been my first choice for an ABA franchise to be assimilated into the NBA. This on top of the fact that they gave themselves a great nickname!
Nowadays, things in Miami have changed. The NBA’s Miami Heat has an adequate place to play in as well as decent media coverage and fan interest. But I moved away from that area many years before that franchise began and feel no loyalty at all to it. You would think that I’d be a big Orlando Magic fan because that’s the closest NBA city to Gainesville. But instead of that, in the last couple of years, I’ve become a fan of the Phoenix Suns with their exciting brand of offense under players like Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, and Shawn Marion. I don’t know whether they’ll win a championship anytime soon, but they are fun to watch! Alas, if only the Colonels had made it into the NBA instead of those obnoxious Spurs (who keep beating my Suns) …
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Rooting for One's Religion
When someone is in the midst of a particular religion as one its followers, he (or she) is surrounded by fellow adherents who abide by a doctrine specific to that religion. The same people tend to associate with each other and repeat the same points of doctrine. When stepping outside of this “feedback loop” and conversing with outsiders, such a follower may encounter incomprehension or even opposition in reaction to statements he is making that, to him, are self-evident. He may also react in this same way to what others are saying. If you’re one of these people, you may find what I have to say to be like this.
There is a tendency nowadays for people who follow a particular religion to behave as if they are following their favorite sports team. Their team is the banner of the religion they follow. And the opposing team is the rest of the world, which must be conquered/converted. Encounters with people on the outside who don’t line up with the home religion’s doctrine (and most of them don’t, regardless of which religion we are talking about) are the “games”. And there are certain litmus test issues, such as evolution vs. creationism or Israel/Palestine, that are used to determined which side people are on. People who see the world this way see every meeting, every transaction, and every news story as a contest between the “good guys” on the home team and the “bad guys” (the infidels/ outsiders/ nonbelievers). Because of this, conflict is seen as inherent in human relationships, because even within a particular religious group, co-believers are continuously evaluating, confronting, and correcting each other according to the words they speak and their actions.
You can insert vastly different religions into the assertions I have made above and it still rings true. This is easier to see when examining a religion whose doctrine diverges greatly from your own, and even more so if you can point to violence in the news that involves its followers. But I hold that, if different religions can be inserted into the “formula” without changing its truth value, then the philosophy of viewing everything in the world as a contest between the true believers and the outsiders is meaningless. I submit that, if this is all there is to one’s religion, then it is pointless, since most religions deem themselves as unique and exclusive. Which should direct the believer to consider the truly important aspects of his own religion, which is the relationship between him and his God, and how he should behave toward the world in a manner that reflects this special relationship instead of acting like all of the other “rah-rah, hooray for our side, down with the other side” people. And with love and compassion taking the place of taking sides.
When considering religion, one naturally thinks about the nature of God, or the Lord. If one assumes that God is all-knowing and all-powerful, then it is, in my opinion, preposterous that any believer can even pretend to have any idea as to what God’s work is in every situation. There are rules for people to live by, of course, and a believer will want to abide by them. But to accept God for what He is demands the realization that there is much mystery in the world, and only God has a handle on it all. We cannot sit on the sidelines and wave our figurative flags around, hooraying the good people and booing the bad people, for the very reason that we just might be mistaken in our judgments, not to mention that we may be overlooking areas in our own lives that need attention. For the often-stated statement, “The Lord works in mysterious ways” is something all believers need to incorporate within themselves, if for no other reason than as an expression of their humbling themselves before their God.
There is a tendency nowadays for people who follow a particular religion to behave as if they are following their favorite sports team. Their team is the banner of the religion they follow. And the opposing team is the rest of the world, which must be conquered/converted. Encounters with people on the outside who don’t line up with the home religion’s doctrine (and most of them don’t, regardless of which religion we are talking about) are the “games”. And there are certain litmus test issues, such as evolution vs. creationism or Israel/Palestine, that are used to determined which side people are on. People who see the world this way see every meeting, every transaction, and every news story as a contest between the “good guys” on the home team and the “bad guys” (the infidels/ outsiders/ nonbelievers). Because of this, conflict is seen as inherent in human relationships, because even within a particular religious group, co-believers are continuously evaluating, confronting, and correcting each other according to the words they speak and their actions.
You can insert vastly different religions into the assertions I have made above and it still rings true. This is easier to see when examining a religion whose doctrine diverges greatly from your own, and even more so if you can point to violence in the news that involves its followers. But I hold that, if different religions can be inserted into the “formula” without changing its truth value, then the philosophy of viewing everything in the world as a contest between the true believers and the outsiders is meaningless. I submit that, if this is all there is to one’s religion, then it is pointless, since most religions deem themselves as unique and exclusive. Which should direct the believer to consider the truly important aspects of his own religion, which is the relationship between him and his God, and how he should behave toward the world in a manner that reflects this special relationship instead of acting like all of the other “rah-rah, hooray for our side, down with the other side” people. And with love and compassion taking the place of taking sides.
When considering religion, one naturally thinks about the nature of God, or the Lord. If one assumes that God is all-knowing and all-powerful, then it is, in my opinion, preposterous that any believer can even pretend to have any idea as to what God’s work is in every situation. There are rules for people to live by, of course, and a believer will want to abide by them. But to accept God for what He is demands the realization that there is much mystery in the world, and only God has a handle on it all. We cannot sit on the sidelines and wave our figurative flags around, hooraying the good people and booing the bad people, for the very reason that we just might be mistaken in our judgments, not to mention that we may be overlooking areas in our own lives that need attention. For the often-stated statement, “The Lord works in mysterious ways” is something all believers need to incorporate within themselves, if for no other reason than as an expression of their humbling themselves before their God.
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