Google Maps and Reality

The other day I checked out Google Maps to chart out a new addition to my running course as I gradually increase my mileage. My goal is to eventually have a full marathon-length course relatively close to home that doesn't involve repetition. A subdivision near Devil's Millhopper looked appealing. I noticed on my map that a long, winding road went northward from NW 53rd Avenue and eventually would deposit me quite a distance away on NW 43rd Street. Then I could run back and reconnect with my original course.

In practice, through, as I rode by bicycle through this neighborhood, I discovered that the "long and winding road" was just a cartographic fantasy. My map had connections showing between neighborhoods that simply did not exist (the connections, that is); I encountered multiple dead ends. Finally, on my disappointed way back through this subdivision, I decided to investigate one of those "dead ends", only to discover that it led into a park that didn't allow motorized traffic but did allow bicyclists (and runners) through. And that path through the park did enable me to get onto 43rd Street anyway, albeit in a different location. Cool, but my Google Map just had a street featured there.

Don't get me wrong: I am very grateful and happy in general with my "maps" feature on Google. It really is quite amazing, actually. And the maps are usually pretty accurate, especially when trying to navigate down established major roads. But sometimes that accuracy breaks down in neighborhoods and can cause some consternation on the part of the frustrated traveller!

Summer Running Mileage Milestone

Earlier today I ran 10.47 miles around my neighborhood. This is the first time that I have ever covered that distance during the summertime. And it represents an important step in my training to complete a marathon sometime this year (the sooner the better).

An important factor in today's accomplishment was a tropical low in the southern Gulf of Mexico, whose outer bands passed over Gainesville. It was breezy, the temperatures stayed in the low eighties throughout my run, and I enjoyed running at times through refreshing showers.

Blog Lull

I have once again entered a period of a lull in my blog writing, for various reasons. I'm not sure how long this will last, but I still plan to write articles from time to time. Thanks for reading!

Weekend Beach Trip

If the above pix look a little familiar to my loyal readers, it's because we stayed at the same hotel in Daytona Beach Shores that we did last year! It was a brief but enjoyable stay, highlighted by my three-mile beach run earlier today in the middle of a torrential lightning storm!

Are We Becoming a Police State?

I just finished reading a very disturbing article from the Gizmodo website revealing how ordinary citizens are being arrested, jailed, and criminally charged for videotaping their public encounters with on-duty police officers. The rationale for this persecution is a wiretapping law designed to protect people's privacy. How completely upside-down to apply it in this manner, especially when it is often the privacy of the ordinary citizen that is being threatened by the officer!

Video-taping public encounters with the police is the only sure way that a citizen has for protection against harassment or false accusations on the part of our public "protectors". Some of the cases that have occurred are being challenged in court, but the overall effect of prosecuting those who are only trying to protect their own civil rights is to intimidate people in the presence of the police and to aggravate distrust of civil authority. Not a very good way to promote law and order, in my opinion.

After all, police testimony against a defendant is still almost automatically accepted by juries. Unless, of course, the defendant can produce contradictory audio/visual evidence that clearly refutes that testimony. It seems to be a blatant violation of the US Constitution to deprive people of the right to defend themselves in the best way possible. Otherwise, if this prohibition against taping police encounters stands, police can arbitrarily trump up any kind of charge against people that they disapprove of, based on lies about them creating a "public disturbance" or "resisting a police officer".

I hope that we are NOT becoming a police state, but right now the prospects don't look so bright. This is the sort of situation that I would have expected in closed, authoritarian third world countries, not the good ol' freedom-loving, flag-waving USA!

Swim or Bowl, I Need Better Technique

Today I had planned to go swimming in the early evening hours at my nearby YMCA, but threatening thunderclouds caused me to change my plans. Instead, I went bowling with my family. Not as much of a workout, but it was a good family event and very enjoyable.

I am neither a good bowler nor a good swimmer, lacking crucial elements in my technique for each. But help is on the way! While I still thought I was going swimming, I went on the Internet and got some good pointers (and some video) on how to properly swim. Similarly, I'm looking for some good bowling tips, particularly in the area of my release of the ball to put a good rotation and "hook" into it.

Before the seventh grade, I neither swam nor bowled. But in one of the rare times of actual nurturing that I experienced at school, I had the opportunity to learn both. My swimming was deplorable and slow for many years afterward, however, with no one (including within my family) bothering to help me with my technique. Over the years, though, I did get to where I could "get around" in a reasonable span of time with my swimming. But I know I could do much better if only I improved my form. The same goes with bowling.

I'm more motivated with improving my swimming than improving my bowling. What I really want is to be able to swim distances on a comparable level with my running, without worrying too much about my times. But I do need to get my form down first.

Humidity Big Factor in Summer Running

Today, around noon, I ran my convoluted course around my home neighborhood, totaling exactly nine miles. In 90 degree weather, with the humidity hovering around 60%. I perspired a lot, but took some safety measures: I walked for about a minute every seven minutes, chugging down a little refrigerated Powerade Zero during each walking period (I finished the 20-ounce bottle by the run's end, the last drops by then being warm). After the run, I downed another cold bottle of Powerade Zero and stepped into a cold shower for several minutes, these steps helping to cool both the exterior and interior of my body. Then, I downed a large cold protein shake to further aid in my recovery.

All of those measures notwithstanding, had the humidity been, say, 10-15 % higher, I would have probably had to cut my run short of 9 miles. For once the temperature reaches a certain threshold, it is the humidity that plays a dramatically important role in my training.

In the summertime here in northern Florida, the evening temperature (without thunderstorms) usually is around the 80 degree mark, more or less. That in itself can be quite uncomfortable to run any appreciable distance in, but what's worse is that the humidity here tends to skyrocket after sunset, sometimes reaching 85-90%. I have seen many runners wait for the nighttime and they look as if they are about to have a heatstroke in the humidity and darkness!

In order to be able to properly perspire, the air has to be dry enough to bring out the sweat. High humidity has an effect of blocking perspiration, which can contribute to the body's overheating and health dangers. So I would much rather run in hotter temperatures with a relatively low humidity. Which is why I never did take to night running.

That being said, I'm not sure my loved ones know what to make of me running nine miles in 90 degree weather with the sun beating down on me!

Wife's 30-Year High School Reunion

My wife and I just came back today from attending her thirty-year high school reunion in Leesburg, Florida. I actually lived there during a seven/eight month stretch in 1987, so I was also looking forward to seeing how much the place had changed (or stayed the same). Melissa got to meet up with several old friends from her high school days, with the spirit of the event being very positive.

I heard it remarked that, for at least this graduating class reunion, the old social cliques had dissolved with a high level of friendliness cutting across the old divisions. Would that it be so in all reunions! That's probably the one thing that most stands in my way of attending one of my old high school reunions. I can't imagine people letting go of the old artificial social divisions that gave them a sense of security and/or superiority in those long bygone years.

Of course, if there are still those kinds of "subdivisions" within my own high school's graduating class ('74), then that really isn't my problem, is it? I would probably be most interested anyway in seeing how those who were my friends back then are doing now.

Being pretty much the quintessential tag-along spouse for someone else's event, I still had a rather good time at Melissa's reunion. Plus, I got to run down the streets of Leesburg, something that I had never done before (I wasn't into running back in '87). All in all, a really nice experience with some really nice folks. And that's saying a lot, since I tend to avoid using the word "nice" on this blog!

I still have frozen mental pictures of my old classmates as they were in the early 70's, although they have obviously aged just like me. Once I was able to get on a reunion website of my old high school and looked at some pictures of my old classmates, none of whom I could recognize (the fact that the pictures weren't captioned didn't help). With Melissa's reunion, I had the reverse problem: without ingrained memories, I easily accepted the present relatively aged appearance of her classmates, trying instead to guess (with difficulty) how they must have appeared during their more youthful "glory days". Well, I guess it's about time to fish out her old yearbook to find out!

My Top Three (or Four) TV Shows: Cartoons

I am suffering from a disconnect with reality, as all three of my top favorite television shows are cartoons. But is it really so unrealistic of me, considering what is really being offered out there?

First, let me say that I don't care for either The Simpsons, Family Guy, or King of the Hill. I don't know, they just rub me the wrong way, that's all (although the father character in Family Guy thoroughly cracks me up). And perhaps my favorites rub you the wrong way as well: South Park, Beavis and Butthead, and SpongeBob SquarePants.

When each of these shows first came out, I had negative impressions of them, keeping me from taking the time to watch them and let their characters settle in. And in each program, it is the strong characters who carry the show. All three are also skillfully satirical, doing so in a way that "leaves no prisoners".

SpongBob SquarePants, set on the bottom of the sea in a place called "Bikini Bottom", features the title character, a Gomer Pyle-like "innocent-but-irritating" yellow kitchen sponge, along with his friends: a stupid starfish, a skinflint crab, a supersmart tomboy squirrel (usually in a diving suit), and my favorite, a supercynical and vain octopus. I tend to root for this last character, named Squidward, and usually feel that an episode without his presence is just not up to the standards of the others.

In like fashion, I dig not only the title characters in Beavis and Butthead, two thoroughly clueless teenage boys, but also the way the show pokes merciless fun at the way schools are run, especially with regard to their teachers and administration.

The same holds for South Park, a show about fourth-graders "growing up" in the title fictional town, located somewhere in Colorado. Stan is the main character, but my favorites are the evil Eric Cartman (a rotund pal of Stan's), tag-along naive Butters, and Stan's father, who epitomizes the often ridiculous pretensions permeating adult society.

Oh, I might want to include my fourth favorite show, also a cartoon: The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. But I'm referring to the classically-animated cartoon, not the marionette or computer-animated spinoffs (avoid these at all costs). Another show with rock-solid characters, my favorites being the fastidious Rabbit and the gloomy-but-wise Eeyore. And like B & B, The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is no longer anywhere to be found on my TV "dial".

Nothing on TV is for real anymore, I'm afraid. Not even "reality television". Not even much of the news, for the large part (especially on Fox). So if you don't mind, I'll stick with Beavis and Butthead on DVD (it is no longer aired), South Park, and SpongeBob. And maybe it's time for me to begin amassing my Winnie the Pooh collection as well.

The Never Done Before Day (Or Week)

I am suffering from an imagination deficit. The thought occurred to me that it would be cool if I were to do or experience at least one completely new thing each day and keep a personal record of my journey. But as I go through my routines, I find few opportunities around me to accomplish this, other than trying out variations on what I am already doing.

For example, I tend to sit at coffee shops. Why not try the Latin Cafe, which probably serves Cuban coffee? Or maybe a similar place elsewhere that enables me to sit and study without spending too much money at a time? But would this really qualify as a new experience?

I could do something like rollerskating, skateboard, skydiving, or rock climbing. There, that takes care of four days! Ultimately, it seems that in the final analysis that I would indeed have to include variations on what I already do.

For example, take dancing, which I just don't do. There are many different types of dancing and dabbling in each would constitute a "new" activity. Visiting different parks and attractions could also constitute different activities. Volunteer projects abound, and each could count as something different to do.

Still, it might be a bit too much to pressure myself to do something different every day. Better maybe to extend the span to each week, enabling me to plan better and to enjoy more substantial experiences.

It seems to me that there are three kinds of "new" activities. The first is what I would call "initiative", i.e. something that I truly haven't done before that will build upon itself as I subsequently engage in it again and again, growing in the process. My earlier examples are largely within this group. The second is "transformational", meaning it may be an activity I had been doing but I take it to a brand-new level of engagement and achievement. And the third is "punctuated": an activity that is new but is more experiential than accomplishment-oriented (e.g. visiting places like NYC).

What I will do is just write down on a blank paper all of the things and places I want to do and visit. And make some plans!

Religious Huddling From the Big Bad World

For a religion as predominant in our American culture as evangelical Christianity, it astounds me how its adherents go to great pains to characterize themselves as being persecuted. But then again, that shouldn't come as a surprise; they probably don't want to recognize the many centuries of Christian persecution of others, instead blindly reverting to "first-century" Christianity as a blueprint for their worldview.

The New Testament clearly paints a picture of persecuted Christians, either from the ruling pagan Romans or the Jewish religious ruling class in Judea. In order to escape arrest, they would secretly meet in believers' homes or in hidden underground locations. The meetings were a kind of "huddling", within which participants could discuss their various attempts to withstand the pressures of the evil outside world to make them renounce their faith. I have to admit to a degree of admiration for these brave early believers.

But it is nothing short of comical to attend family groups of evangelical Christians nowadays and hear people sit around in in elegant living rooms throwing out the same spiel about being persecuted. What they are really saying is that they don't want to have to see or hear anything in the so-called "outside world" that contradicts their religious dogma. So "secular" music, television, and movies are somehow persecuting them by existing. Even science (like evolutionary biology and cosmology) is a threat; hence a whole new branch of religious apologetics called "creation science". And if our democracy puts into office politicians whose priorities don't include discriminating against groups of people evangelicals disapprove of (like gays), then oh, how they are so persecuted!

Today's Evangelical Christianity Gnostic

I remember seeing in the backs of magazines advertisements for books revealing the secrets of certain special, closed societies that have reputedly been around for centuries. Secrets that told of principles for health, prosperity, and even supernatural powers...including the ability to live forever. This idea that there is a secret formula, hidden from most of the world, leading its practitioners to a better life apart from the rest, is the embodiment of a religious philosophy called "gnosticism". It was recently expressed in the Matrix movie trilogy with those escaping the false world of the Matrix (representing what we would call "reality") discovering the truth that set them free from the control of forces detrimental to humanity (the "machines"). The transformational moment came quickly ( by swallowing the "red" pill) and was irreversible. But away from the cinema, we don't need science fiction or secret societies to discover gnosticism: it surrounds us in our culturally powerful religion of evangelical Christianity.

You see, the key to "success" within evangelical Christianity is not to do good deeds or live a moral life. According to the "rules", it is to have passed through an irreversible barrier by at least once having sincerely recognized one's sinful nature and prayed for Jesus to enter one's life and grant eternal life. This is called "salvation" and once obtained, cannot be lost, no matter how dissolutely the saved individual subsequently lives. So we continually read news reports about professed Christians getting into the same criminal trouble as non-Christians. The divorce rate is as high among the evangelical community as it is among the "lost". But you see, that isn't the important thing. The important thing is that the special formula was worked out successfully at a moment in time, somehow obligating God to bestow eternal life and escape from hell on the transformed individual.

There is a reason, I believe, why kingdoms and empires during the first few centuries of Christianity worked hard to eradicate gnosticism and brand it a heresy. For a ruler who proclaimed himself a Christian would essentially decree that his people were consequently Christian, with their eternal fate linked to their loyalty to him and good conduct on this earth during their mortal lives. The idea that people could bypass their obligations to their political leaders with a few catch-phrases, a heartfelt prayer, and (with some a necessity) a dunking in water, seemed bogus.

Well, when I first heard of the salvation method being pushed in evangelical Christianity in 1967, it seemed pretty bogus to me as well. That's because it was presented (and still is) as a formula that needs to be sincerely practiced at a moment in time to work. This is similar to the function of a key, and in the Matrix series the symbolism of keys plays strongly in their gnostic story line. The salvation formula in evangelical Christianity isn't a big secret, but it nevertheless resembles gnosticism in that it IS a formula that purports to drastically and permanently change the nature of one's life (and afterlife). It also sharply separates, in the eyes of the initiates, themselves from those living in the "outside" world.

List Madness: I Rank Led Zeppelin's Songs

I like lists of all kinds. Perhaps the favorite is my own personal list of favorites. To that end, I will sometimes take a break from writing and just put out a "favorites" list. And today: my rating of Led Zeppelin songs, from top to bottom.

Making a list like this is problematic, since such a list is bound to change from time to time. But for general purposes, here is my list of studio Zep recordings according to my liking (with some of the titles probably imprecise). I indicated each song's album, abbreviated in the following manner: Led Zeppelin "I" (eponymous), II, III,and "IV" (untitled) are self-evident. Houses of the Holy: HH, Physical Graffiti: PG, Presence: P, In Throught the Out Door: ITOD, and Coda: C.

Here's my list:

1 When the Levee Breaks [IV]
2 Misty Mountain Hop [IV]
3 Dazed and Confused [I]
4 Over the Hills and Far Away [HH]
5 Friends [III]
6 Going to California [IV]
7 Stairway to Heaven [IV]
8 No Quarter [HH]
9 In the Evening [ITOD]
10 Ramble On [II]
11 Bron-Yr-Aur [PG]
12 Four Sticks [IV]
13 The Crunge [HH]
14 The Song Remains the Same [HH]
15 Hey Hey What Can I Do [Box Set]
16 Your Time is Gonna Come [I]
17 Wearing and Tearing [Coda]
18 Bron-Y-Aur Stomp [III]
19 Gallows Pole [III]
20 Kashmir [PG]
21 Bring It On Home [II]
22 Poor Tom [C]
23 Dancing Days [HH]
24 Black Mountain Side [I]
25 Living Loving Maid [II]
26 Battle of Evermore [IV]
27 Candy Store Rock [P]
28 Ten Years Gone [PG]
29 The Ocean [HH]
30 Travelling Riverside Blues [Box Set]
31 Achilles' Last Stand [P]
32 How Many More Times [I]
33 Rain Song [HH]
34 Rock n' Roll [IV]
35 Black Country Woman [PG]
36 Wanton Song [PG]
37 Heartbreaker [II]
38 Hats Off to Roy Harper [III]
39 Carouselambra [ITOD]
40 Royal Orleans [P]
41 In the Light [PG]
42 Houses of the Holy [PG]
43 That's the Way [III]
44 Communication Breakdown [I]
45 South Bound Saurez [ITOD]
46 All My Love [ITOD]
47 Since I've Been Loving You [III]
48 Nobody's Fault But Mine [P]
49 Trampled Under Foot [PG]
50 D'Yer Maker [HH]
51 Immigrant Song [III]
52 Sick Again [PG]
53 I'm Gonna Crawl [ITOD]
54 Hots On for Nowhere [P]
55 Celebration Day [III]
56 What Is and What Should Never Be [II]
57 Ozone Baby [C]
58 Tea for One [P]
59 Out on the Tiles [III]
60 We're Gonna Groove [C]
61 Boogie With Stu [PG]
62 In My Time of Dying [PG]
63 Tangerine [III]
64 Custard Pie [PG]
65 Thank You [II]
66 Lemon Song [II]
67 Good Times Bad Times [I]
68 Black Dog [IV]
69 Walter's Walk [C]
70 Bonzo's Montreux [C]
71 You Shook Me [I]
72 Down By the Seaside [PG]
73 Moby Dick [II]
74 Baby Come On Home [released 1996]
75 The Rover [PG]
76 I Can't Quit You Baby [I,C]
77 Night Flight [PG]
78 Whole Lotta Love [II]
79 Babe I'm Gonna Leave You [I]
80 Fool in the Rain [ITOD]
81 For Your Life [P]
82 Darlene [C]
83 Hot Dog [ITOD] (actually much worse than #83, more like #999,999)

Five Guys and a Duck

A few weeks ago, while in Jacksonville to drop my son off at college, I stopped off with my family at a popular new fast food chain that he recommended: Five Guys.

Five Guys claims to make better hamburgers than other chains, and apparently a lot of people agree with them. A restaurant just recently opened in southwest Gainesville on Archer Road, with such an instant following that people trying to find parking in adjacent lots have come back to their cars finding them booted (Gainesville parking badly sucks, as I have written previously). Well, I have my own experience about Five Guys.

The Five Guys we went to in Jacksonville was located in Town Center, site of many stores and restaurants. Inside, it was very noisy with poor seating. We decided we would take our food outside where there was more room. But the noise level was still high, with their oldies rock music blaring at us wherever we went. The prices were much higher than McDonald's or Burger King but lower than sit-in places like Chili's or TGIF. But I wasn't at all impressed with the burgers and thought that their fries were actually quite lousy.

I resented paying five bucks for a hamburger that I could have gotten for less than half the price at other places. At least in a sit-in restaurant, someone seats you and you can relax, appreciate the surroundings, and have others serve you. That merits the higher tab at the end. But we had to wait at Five Guys for our high-priced order standing there just like we would at Mac or BK. And their menu was pretty much limited to burgers and fries, with few other choices.

Trying to find something positive out of the experience while sitting there wolfing down my lunch, I noticed a little brown duck waddle through an opening and begin to cover the floor around the outdoor diners, looking for scraps. It was quite tame, as newly seated customers would attract its attention and it would make its way over to them. I kept looking back at that opening to see if more ducks would enter, but this guy apparently had his own personal territory marked out!

Unfortunately, the Five Guys in Gainesville doesn't have their own resident duck to entertain the suckers--I mean customers-- who patronize them. I wonder whether this fad will wear off, or whether other people really do have a different sense as to what tastes good and what constitutes a good dining experience.

MLB Standings at This Stage

I am interested in how the major league baseball standings are unfolding this year. I suppose that, at this late date in July, this would be a good time to assess where we are, especially regarding those teams I tend to follow and root for.

In the American League East, the defending World Series champions New York Yankees have a 3-game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays, with Boston still in the playoff hunt 7.5 back. Tampa Bay, although in 2nd place, does enjoy a 7-game margin over the other 2nd place teams in the league for the final wild-card playoff position. In the Central division, there is an interesting 3-way struggle for the lead going on between the currently-leading Chicago White Sox ("my" team here), the Detroit Tigers, and the Minnesota Twins (last year's divisional champions). In the West, Texas is 6 games ahead of the Los Angeles Angels.

Looking at the National League East, my Atlanta Braves are surprising everyone by enjoying a 7-game lead over the NY Mets and Philly, along with the best record in the league. The Florida Marlins are experiencing a difficult season, languishing in 5th place at 47-48 (although they are showing signs of a surge). The Central division is a two-team contest between the Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals with the latter enjoying a narrow 1.5 game lead due to a recent 8-game winning streak. The West has San Diego surprisingly in front, with San Francisco, Colorado, and the disappointing Los Angeles Dodgers still in the race.

For the rest of the season, I see the standings pretty much holding to the way they are now. I'd like to see the Chicago White Sox hold on to win their division, but I suspect that Minnesota will pull ahead at the end. St. Louis should put some distance between themselves and Cincinnati, while anyone could win in the West.

I may do this a month from now to see where things stand.

Communicating Means Listening, Too

The pastor at the church I attend has quite a gift with public speaking. His sermons are at the same time witty and profound, balancing well the religious message he is trying to convey with his personal life experiences. A lot of times I come out of there saying that he did a great job of communicating what he was trying to express. But not too long ago, I had a personal experience with him that gave me pause for reflection.

This pastor, who is about my age, had decided to train to run in the Sarasota Half-Marathon that was held in March earlier this year. He and an associate pastor in the church were quite public about what they were going to do (neither had run a half-marathon before), and the a.p. actually incorporated it into one of his own sermons. Well, I had thought at first that the half-marathon that they were going to run in would naturally be the LifeSouth Five Points race held right here in Gainesville on February 14. A race, incidentally that I had trained to run (and did). So when that day came and went without any sign of my two religious acquaintances, I wondered whether they might have skipped out. But no, they had decided to run in Sarasota instead. Fine, I thought, maybe I'll have the chance to "compare notes" about our experiences someday.

When that day came, it was after church and the pastor walked out and, noticing me standing there with my two children, walked over to warmly greet me. That's when I brought up his half-marathon race and asked him how it went for him. But he was very terse and quickly let himself be distracted by someone else. In mid-conversation. I was left feeling like someone who had just been insulted. And then it hit me.

If you know you have a more-or-less captive audience for a specific block of time (like with Sunday sermons), then you can plan elaborately textured speeches that leave the listeners impressed with your abilities. But most of the time, you are in informal situations where it can be a struggle to hold someone's attention for more than just a few seconds. It is not your fault that people don't have the courtesy or attention span to hear out your ideas; it is more due to their bad habits as poor, selfish, and inattentive listeners. In that stunted after-church "conversation" with the pastor, his discourteous behavior cast a shadow on the subsequent times I sat through his sermons; if he won't listen to me for a couple of minutes, why does he think I should listen at all to him?

So from now on, when I hear that someone is a great "communicator", I understand that this usually means that they have a good speaking delivery and methodology. But to truly warrant that kind of praise, the great speaker also needs to be a great listener. And I have discovered that, in spite of the relative scarcity of good speakers, there are even fewer good listeners, my proud running pastor included.

Major Story: Lohan in the Slammer, 2A

I have my Gainesville Sun delivered to me every morning, between 6 and 7. It comes rolled up in a plastic wrapper, landing in my driveway behind my car. This morning Melissa got up before me and brought the paper up to the front door before she left for errands. I got up, dressed, and set out for my nearest Starbucks to try to conjure up something for a blog article. I picked up the paper as I stepped out, hoping that today there would be something of interest to write about. When I arrived at Starbucks, I bought my usual tall "bold" roast coffee, pulled my still-wrapped Gainesville Sun out of my backpack along with my AlphaSmart word processor, and glanced at the headline on the upper-left corner of the front page. I may not take the paper out of the wrapper after all.

This is the news headline I saw: "Lindsay Lohan Begins Serving Sentence, 2A". Newspaper. News. Paper. O.K., I get the paper part, I put it down on the floor and my dog understands that as well. But news? Who is Lindsay Lohan? An actress, though not a very prominent one anymore, who for years has gotten herself into one legal predicament after another. I'm sorry that she's going to jail now. But does that rate as a news headline? NEWS??!!

.....Oh what the heck, I took the plunge and pulled the paper out of the plastic and opened it. Sure enough, on page 2, was a long article about Lindsay Lohan's ordeals. On the next page was a shorter article reporting that the jobless-benefits bill had advanced through the Senate, with the Democrats managing to break a GOP filibuster. Thumbing through to page 7, I discovered that Elena Kagan passed the Senate Judiciary Committee's vote on her nomination 13-6 (my Republican pal Lindsay Graham of South Carolina displaying his customary classy deference to tradition and voting "aye"), with the final debate and vote to go through to the Senate floor. Neither the jobless-benefits bill nor Kagan's committee vote had any front-page indicators. Nor did the lengthy, important article on 5A with the title "British PM says BP not behind bomber's release". Or how about the informative and interesting analysis in the adjacent article about how China has surpassed the U.S. as the world's largest energy consumer?

I suppose I should be happy that the Gainesville Sun at least did have the relevant news articles somewhere in their paper. And perhaps it isn't all their fault that they thought Lindsay Lohan might mean more to people at large than jobless benefits or a new Supreme Court Justice. Because, sadly, with people at large, the Sun probably sized up the situation correctly.

Foreign Language Geniuses

The acquisition of language is truly a remarkable phenomenon and is one of the main traits that set humanity apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. We tend to take our native language for granted, but encounter a wall of incomprehension when confronted with someone speaking a different language. When I hear someone rattling off in any other tongue than English, he or she seems like an incredible genius. The effect becomes very bizarre when I am watching a TV show and the "geniuses" are displaying behaviors that are anything but intelligent. My primary source of this on TV is my Spanish-language station Univision.

Univision has a good variety of programming on it, and I am glad that my local cable TV company chose to include it on their channel lineup. I tend to watch their morning show Despierta America and their late night news broadcast, usually still on the air when I get home from work. They also have campy comedy shows, reality/talk shows resembling Oprah Winfrey and Maury Povich, and many novelas (soap operas). It is in these genres of programming where I find the "genius bubble" frequently popping!

The final straw came recently when I was watching commercials and a Rosetta Stone ad came on, in Spanish of course. Genius after genius came on the commercial (speaking fluent native Spanish) relating what a great program of language instruction Rosetta Stone had been for them. Finally, they revealed the great product that most of those applauding this company were talking about: Rosetta Stone English! Suddenly I got real smug (for a few seconds at least) and reminded myself that to many I was the one who seemed like a genius. At least until people actually learned English and understood what I was saying!

I Support the Muslim Center Near WTC

I keep hearing of this mosque that will supposedly be built on the World Trade Center site. Those bringing this to the forefront of attention usually are vehemently opposed and even outraged, claiming that since it was Muslims who committed the acts bringing down the World Trade Center buildings on 9/11, Islam itself is responsible with its presence somehow desecrating the "sacred" site where so many died.

Well, it's true that God has been conveniently used by different parties throughout history to justify their atrocities, whatever religion their usurped "God" happened to be fronting. But the proposed mosque and Muslim cultural center will neither be on the World Trade Center site nor on public land. It will go on private property nearby. And as far as I know, we still live in a country that does not establish a state religion. Nor does it favor one religion over another, or least it isn't supposed to!

If the Muslim center is prevented from being established in its proposed Lower Manhattan location, then we need to go across our country and uproot the myriad Christian churches that had been built on the heels of ethnic cleansing of native Americans during the 18th and 19th centuries. Otherwise, let's show some social maturity and celebrate the spirit of diversity and tolerance that is the true antidote for the narrow-minded and intolerant mindset that beset the 9/11 terrorists and led to their unspeakable acts of inhumanity.

Not surprisingly, Sarah Palin, who seems determined to demagogue any issue that she feels she can gain political leverage out of, has come down strongly against the mosque being built. Palin, who quit her one position of elected government responsibility in Alaska to go to other parts of the country and tell others how to run their own business, has managed to get Zondervan, a Christian publisher, to publish and promote her memoirs. Christian bookstore chains prominently stock and advertise her political book Going Rogue. Palin is part of the "Christians are of God and are the good guys, Muslims are of the devil and are the bad guys" simplistic worldview that appeals to so many in the Christian right. The 9/11 terrorists, for their part, were part of the group saying "Muslims are of God and are the good guys, Christians are of the devil and are the bad guys". I don't know about you, but there is too much similarity between the two for me to feel comfortable following "Sister Sarah"!

Running Race Doldrums

I had the opportunity yesterday to run a 5K race in scenic and historic St. Augustine, one of my favorite cities in Florida. Instead, I decided to pass it by, having come up with some new parameters regarding my participation in races.

Having repeatedly endured unpleasant starts to previous 5K (3.1 miles) races because of other runners pushing ahead and blocking me from establishing any kind of reasonable early pace, I have decided to avoid this short type of race and instead have established 5 miles as the absolute minimum distance that I will run in a public race. And I'm not so keen at 5 miles either. Secondly, I have decided to ALWAYS avoid the tedious and drawn-out awards ceremony after races as they are almost always held too long after the race. And I will rely on my own timing to clock myself, having seen in three of the last four races either no timing done on the part of the race's organizers, no times posted, or the wrong times posted.

Yes, I will henceforth tailor my participation in running races to my own standards and make events work for me. I may even decide, after a race's finish, to just keep on running for a longer workout!

I e-mailed a letter to my Florida Track Club (I say "my" even though they readily deposited my entry check by July 8 but have yet to acknowledge my membership, even with my e-mail address provided on the application form) about their mishandled timing on their July 4 Melon Run. In reply I got a sickly sweet runaround e-mail letter written by a member who took great pains to let me know he was a "doctor" (as if that had ANYTHING to do with my question). Still nothing was ever done to correct the erroneous times, so I can only presume that this is a do-nothing good-ol' boy kind of club existing just to puff up certain of its members' egos. I didn't shell out very much money to join, so I'll just chalk it all up to a "live-and-learn" type of personal experience and move on.