List Madness: The Police Songs Rated From Top to Bottom

The Police was a trio comprised of the British musicians Stewart Copeland (drums), Andy Summers (lead guitar), and Sting (bass guitar, keyboard, lead vocals, main songwriter). Their specialty was a seminal form of alternative rock based largely on an ingenious blend of reggae, punk, new wave, and jazz. They recorded and released five studio albums from 1978 to 1983 and then called it quits, with Sting enjoying a very successful solo career to this day.

From my perspective as someone who then listened primarily to single hits on the radio, the Police was a good band with some interesting songs. But after the release of their fourth album Ghost in the Machine in 1982, I finally took notice of them. But the album I first purchased was their third, Zenyatta Mondatta (on vinyl, with all of the cool pictures and cover art, so sadly lacking nowadays). I then realized the depth of this act's quality music and eventually acquired all five albums. To this day I regard them highly, and one of their songs, the apocalyptic Invisible Sun (which I discussed in this 2007 article), remains as one of my top all-time favorites.

Lately I have been listening to my Police collection on my mp3 player in shuffle mode while running and at work. It didn't take long to refamiliarize myself with the 54 tracks. Eventually as has been my custom with other artists I like, I decided to rate them from top to bottom according to my personal preferences. The list is below: no doubt you probably disagree with some of the rankings, but that's part of the fun of doing lists like this.

I didn't include the extra songs that the Police recorded. They had a few B-sides to their singles not appearing on their albums, and I have never heard them. I also omitted alternative versions of their original hits, such as the entirely different Roxanne recording. After each song, its album is indicated through the following code: Outlandos d'Amour [OA], Reggatta de Blanc [RB], Zenyatta Mondatta [ZM], Ghost in the Machine [GM], and Synchronicity [S].

Well, here goes...

1 Invisible Sun [GM]
2 Darkness [GM]
3 Synchronicity I [S]
4 Can't Stand Losing You [OA]
5 The Bed’s Too Big Without You [RB]
6 Canary in a Coalmine [ZM]
7 Synchronicity II [S]
8 It's Alright for You [RB]
9 Don't Stand So Close to Me [ZM]
10 Miss Gradenko [S]
11 When the World is Running Down You Make the Best of What’s Still Around [ZM]
12 Masoko Tanga [OA]
13 Spirits in the Material World [GM]
14 Too Much Information [GM]
15 De Do Do Do De Da Da Da [ZM]
16 Hungry for You (J’aurais toujours faim de toi) [GM]
17 Omegaman [GM]
18 Secret Journey [GM]
19 King of Pain [S]
20 No Time This Time [RB]
21 O My God [S]
22 Driven to Tears [ZM]
23 Roxanne [OA]
24 Peanuts [OA]
25 The Other Way of Stopping [ZM]
26 Regatta de Blanc [RB]
27 Next to You [OA]
28 Walking on the Moon [RB]
29 Bring on the Night [RB]
30 Man in a Suitcase [ZM]
31 Every Little Thing She Does is Magic [GM]
32 Truth Hits Everybody [OA]
33 Voices in My Head [ZM]
34 On Any Other Day [RB]
35 Hole in My Life [OA]
36 Death Wish [RB]
37 Message in a Bottle [RB]
38 So Lonely [OA]
39 Demolition Man [GM]
40 Bombs Away [ZM]
41 Be My Girl/Sally [OA]
42 Wrapped Around Your Finger [S]
43 Does Everyone Stare [RB]
44 Rehumanize Yourself [GM]
45 Walking in Your Footsteps [S]
46 Murder by Numbers [S]
47 One World (Not Three) [GM]
48 Every Breath You Take [S]
49 Contact [RB]
50 Shadows in the Rain [ZM]
51 Born in the 50s [OA]
52 Tea in the Sahara [S]
53 Behind My Camel [ZM]
54 Mother [S]

Quarter Infomercial Follow-Up

As a follow-up to my "Commercial Dream Seepage" article a few days ago, I happened to tune in to that same infomercial, in which an obnoxious man was hawking a couple of albums full of American commemorative quarters. In my original article, I dreamed (yes, dreamed) that the asking price was $99: in full consciousness, I observed that the price was TWO payments of $99. However, there were a lot of quarters in this TV offer, and according to the annoying gentleman, they constituted a complete set of all the variants produced not only in the "American States" series, but also the "America the Beautiful" series in the second album. So it finally made sense boasting that the image of Smokey Bear would be on the album cover: it was for that latter album featuring beautiful American scenic places engraved on the quarters.

Watching this, although convincing me that it wasn't really a monumental rip-off after all, gave me pause for reflection. This offer was ostensibly targeted for coin collecting enthusiasts, but was it really so in the final analysis? After all, the fun in any collecting hobby is in the gradual amassing of the "stuff" that the hobby constitutes. That includes starting small, noting the items that are wanted, and investigating various ways to add them to the collection. And a great part of the enjoyment in going over one's collection is recalling how the various items were acquired. This goes for collecting cards, stamps, coins, or anything else. I was an avid card collector as a kid. I envied others who had a larger collection than me and wanted to build up my collection to their level. But if someone just handed me a series' complete collection, then I would get no real satisfaction from possessing it. So that leads me to the probable "real" target of this infomercial.

Investment, pure and simple. People are looking for ways to invest their money into hard, tangible commodities that will appreciate in value over the years. It matters not whether the buyer of these quarter sets is a numismatic enthusiast: collecting coins is (very) secondary to the goal of investment for future financial gain, at least the way I see it...

Blog Entries a Little Sparce Lately

It has been a little difficult getting out blog entries lately. Hopefully, as the week progresses, I will have more time, energy, and mental focus to devote myself to more writing. As of this moment, though, I am tired and just want to rest...

NFL Ramblings

Regarding National Football League quarterbacks, I am not a big Tim Tebow fan. Actually, I tend to like his predecessor at Denver, Kyle Orton, more. It was pleasing to see him have such a good game with his new team, the Kansas City Chiefs, as they further endeared me to them by beating the Green Bay Packers 19-14. You see, I am a longtime Miami Dolphins fan and see any team that goes late into the season unbeaten as a threat to the unique legacy left by the 1972 Dolphins team, which won the Super Bowl that year and lost not a single game. The Pack fell on its back, so to speak, and I largely credit Mr. Orton's deft performance for it. Way to go, Kyle...

As for Tebow, I'm still a little miffed at his late heroics in a game earlier this year, leading the Denver Broncos to an improbable comeback win against my Dolphins, just as they were finally on the verge of winning their first game. I don't care one way or another about his open expression of his Christian faith: what bothers me is that a huge swath of the population is behind him for that reason alone (and then again, there are those who oppose him for that same reason). But one thing about his success which pleases me is how he is making fools out of the sports talk show "experts" who said that he was completely lacking in the skills needed to be a competent pro quarterback. I already knew of Tebow's versatility from his years here in Gainesville as the Florida QB. And he does a great job encouraging his teammates to play as a unit and to their best individual abilities, and to feel that victory is always possible (well, almost always).

Speaking of the Dolphins, they actually climbed out of last place in the AFC East Division by beating Buffalo 30-23 today. The two teams both sport 5-9 records, but Miami has the edge by having beaten the Bills twice. They have good prospects for next year. I hope the new "permanent" coach they get is a wise choice.

I'm trying to figure out which teams I'm going to support in the playoffs this year. It hasn't been fun for the state of Florida, with all three NFL franchises having pretty lousy, losing seasons. I like Green Bay (now that they've lost a game) and New Orleans in the NFC. I wish the New York Giants were doing better: their play is so inconsistent that they don't look to make the playoffs (unless everything goes their way in the last two weeks of the regular season). NFC teams that I absolutely dislike? The San Francisco 49ers for their arrogant head coach and the Detroit Lions for their dirty play. In the AFC, the "enemies" are more traditional: New England and Pittsburgh. I clearly like Baltimore more than any of the others, but after them I don't see a whole lot to like, sorry to say. Denver is an interesting (albeit way overhyped) team, but I think that should the New York Jets make the playoffs, I would prefer them. I would like to see San Diego make it, but like the Giants in the NFC, they are practically out of the playoff picture with their mediocre record. Of all the teams technically remaining in the running, I like the New York Giants the most, but like I said, their prospects don't look too good right now. So, assuming they don't get into the playoffs, I am now picking my two favorites to make it to the Super Bowl: the Baltimore Ravens and the Green Bay Packers. With the Ravens prevailing in the end.

Actually, that "wish list" stands a pretty reasonable chance of coming true, from where things stand right now...

I Will Miss Jax Half-Marathon

I probably should have known how this would go down, but I thought it was a good idea to at least set forth the goal: to run a half-marathon race each month through February. The weak link in this plan is the month of December because (1) working at the post office, I am heavily engaged in the holiday parcel processing season and (2) this is the month I would have to travel a good distance out of town to find a half-marathon race. The closest one will happen this coming Sunday morning in Jacksonville, but I will have worked late into the night before. I just don't think it will work out for me this time around.

Right now, it is enough for me to concentrate on keeping myself rested each day for work as the load and intensity increases. Some time next week, it will lighten up. But at least, while passing up on a half-marathon this month, I can continue to run a reasonable amount of miles with the idea of resuming the racing next month.

Commercial Dream Seepage

Last night, after an especially grueling shift of work processing Christmas season parcels and working overtime, I fell asleep in front of my television. For some reason, it was on H2 (formerly History Channel International) when I dozed off. I can't remember: did they really have a show on about history, for a change? But anyway, it couldn't have been all that exciting: apparently, before I knew it, I had fallen sound asleep.

I found myself having one of those interesting geographical dreams. I approached a place that had some kind of roller coaster ride going on. In my dream, I thought that it was familiar, but later couldn't place it: it was most likely just a composite of other rides I had experienced over the years. Anyway, I went into the little building where the ride's entrance was. A friendly, elderly gentleman (who seemed to be the ride's operator) greeted me as did a younger man. The younger man then suddenly began to go on babbling incessantly about some great deal he was offering, selling those old U.S. quarters from the 50 states. I calculated within my dream that $.25 X 50 = $12.50 (I wonder how many people can do that while asleep), so the deal had better be comparable. I was surprised when he instead asked for 99 bucks! But the dude was making clear that, not only was he selling every single version of these quarters, but was also putting them in a album with the official "Smokey Bear" logo on it. This began to seep into my mind as a confirmation that I was having a wacky dream. Moreover, this son-of-a-gun was not only bothering me with his heavy-handed, aggressive speaking reminiscent of some of those obnoxious fire-and-brimstone preachers (like John Hagee, ugh), but he was also keeping me from my ride! So I managed to arise out of my slumber. Only to find myself facing a TV infomercial (on H2, of course) featuring a different son-of-a-gun spewing out the same sales pitch, with the same overbearing manner, about the same coin album offer. With Smokey Bear on the cover. Surreal.

Still wondering whether I was still dreaming, I managed to get up and flick off that TV. In the process, I flicked off that salesman as well...

Dolphins Owner Fires Coach Sparano

The Miami Dolphins, headed for their third consecutive losing season under head coach Tony Sparano, after enjoying an improbable turnaround from a dismal 1-15 record in 2007 to a division-winning 11-5 in his first season after being hiring by Bill Parcells, have just fired Sparano. Apparently, this coach, who showed plenty of sideline enthusiasm, just couldn't keep his team together as a tight unit throughout games and over the course of a season. I thought the move was correct: there was no sign that the Dolphins' fortunes stood to change with Sparano in there. But the owner Stephen Ross, with the firing, stated that he wanted a young "Don Shula-type" to coach the team. Well, duh, doesn't everybody? After all, Shula is one of a kind: the all-time winningest coach in NFL history, with only 2 losing seasons in 26 while coaching Miami from 1970 through 1995. From 1996 through 2003, Shula's successors Jimmy Johnson and Dave Wannstedt (at least until 2004), managed to produce moderately successful seasons, none of them with a losing record. But in the last 8 years, Miami has suffered through 6 losing seasons. Enough is enough.

There are plenty of good coaching prospects out there, and Miami is an attractive place in which to work. Hopefully, the new coach, who will start his job after the end of the season, will fulfill owner Ross's vision at least to the point of establishing a more long-term, consistently winning team. But another Don Shula? Forget it!

About Three Dates

First, let's look at May 29 and October 9.

If I told you the "death days" for the famous people whose birthdays the above two dates represent, you might say, oh yeah... really? But instead, we remember November 22 instead of May 29 and December 8 instead of October 9 to remember the lives of John F. Kennedy and John Lennon. How come?

After all, these individuals were respected and even loved, not reviled, so their dying days were sad and tragic occasions. Why not remember their birthdays instead? After all, we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a national holiday on January 15...or the nearest Monday to it. Why not mark May 29 and October 9 as well for some positive celebration?

I think the reason is pretty self-evident, actually. We weren't around JFK or the former Beatle great when either were born, but their deaths were a kind of shared event among us: most people remember where they were and what they were doing when the tragic news was heard (presuming that they were old enough at the time, of course). So although their births weren't all that personal for us, their deaths certainly were...and unforgettable. But I think that there is still room enough on the calendar to give a little more attention to the birthdays too, don't you?

On an almost completely unrelated note, connected only because it's about dates, I remember the first time I ever followed the New Years Day college football bowl games. I was out with my father in some shop somewhere on US 441 in Hollywood, Florida in the afternoon on January 1, 1968. They had a television there tuned in to the Cotton Bowl game in Dallas, that year pitting Texas A&M against Alabama (the Cotton Bowl actually meant something back then). Just because I thought that "A&M" was an intriguing part of a college's name, I began to root for them. And they won, beginning the process luring me in as a habitual televised football spectator. In subsequent years, I looked forward to New Years Day with its major bowl games. As time passed by, the number of bowls proliferated. Finally, one, and then more of them began to be moved to the days immediately following in January. Still, I always knew that there would be some good college football to watch on New Years Day. Right?

Wrong! This coming New Years Day features ZERO bowl games! But don't despair, football junkies: it's on a Sunday that just happens to be the final regular season day for the NFL. I guess the television networks pretty much control the scheduling for football nowadays. Still, I miss that New Year's college bowl tradition...

An Exquisitely Gloomy Weather Day

Today has been one of those special weather days here in Gainesville, with the sky completely overcast, the temperatures hovering around 60, a strong wind circulating around, and the impression that it is always on the verge of raining without ever doing so. In other words, my kind of day!

No, I am not a "bright sunshine" kind of guy. I like the kind of brooding, dark weather that often befits my personality. So today rocked! It also reminded me of last Christmas, which experienced the same outside gloom the entire day with the cloud cover so thick that the night began to befall the area in mid-afternoon. I would know, since I was out running 20 miles in it! The main difference between then and now is that on Christmas it did finally let loose and rain (right at the end of my run).

Alas today, with its exquisite weather, would not see me performing a long run: I did that yesterday and now space them at least two days apart. I did run 1.34 miles, though (two laps around my block). Afterward, I just had to stand out in the backyard for a spell and let the weather overcome me, it was so wonderful...

Maybe tomorrow will see more of the same. But my experience tells me that this sort of weather pattern is fleeting. We'll probably either get rain or the clouds will abate. Right now, though, it's a little after nine at night and the weather is still the same as it has been all day...

British Online Spy Contest

A couple of days ago, I was watching CNN and saw a news story that I had some trouble believing. But no, it had to be true: British intelligence was holding an online contest to see who could decipher a difficult code on their website. Those with winning solutions received a prize: a job interview to become a career spy for the Crown!

So let's suppose that I am from any nation on Earth besides Great Britain. That most likely means that my country has its own intelligence/spy network at work and would love to infiltrate Britain's network, even if we were allies. So my country, most probably with more advanced technology and methods of cracking codes than do ordinary, individual citizens, solves the puzzle and has one of its agents stationed within Britain submit the winning solution. Presto, a mole served to order!

But wait, maybe that's what the smart guys in British intelligence are thinking and they are using this "contest" to filter out potential double agents. But...

Maybe those countries who would use this contest to plant moles see through this and will deliberately use people who can give misinformation to the British. But then again...

Maybe the British know that those countries will do this and they want to throw them off the trail of their real intelligence schemes...

Well, I suppose this could go on indefinitely. But I think I've already cracked their online code. You see, I have my own source of code deciphering material, delivered by a mysterious short, bespectacled operator going by the tag "Ralphie".

The solution is: "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine!"

O.K. Brits, I'm ready: sign me up!

Weis Leaves UF, No Big Loss

Florida offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, whose much-heralded presence in his first year on the job produced one of the worst offensive seasons that Gator fans have seen in recent decades, has decided to leave UF to become head coach at Kansas after stating just a few days earlier that he would stay at Florida for several years. Apparently, that school's athletic director decided that he wanted what Mr. Weis brought to Florida: a completely uninspired, lackluster offense and a leader whose words they can't believe. Good luck, if that's what they want out there; it's just one more item I can add to my long list of reasons I never want to move to an already lackluster state. On the other hand, my current governor, teabagger and suspected space alien Rick Scott (who has yet to produce any official, stamped, signed, and dated document specifically stating that he was born within our Solar System), is doing all that he can to make Florida as equally unattractive to live in...

Florida is now looking for a replacement for offensive coordinator. They need someone who will be able to salvage the ongoing recruiting season, which doesn't seem to be going very well at the moment with highly-sought-after prospects signing on with other schools. But then again, the current Gator team is largely made up of what sports analysts had regarded in the past as some of the nation's top recruiting classes. Still, they'd better hurry up, hire someone, and get the new o.c. on the road to add some more Gators! Oh, and how about adding a little razzle-dazzle to Florida's offense for a change?

And by the way, let's do something about getting ourselves some size and talent on the offensive line! It was downright embarrassing to see the Gators being pushed around on the line of scrimmage this year, game after game after game, sometimes against just average opponents...

Twelve Eight...Then and Now

Today marks the anniversary of the shooting death of John Lennon in 1980 at the hands of a lunatic at the entrance to the former Beatles' home, the Dakota Apartments in Manhattan just across from Central Park. He was only forty and had just begun to renew his musical career with a double album release, a team effort with his wife Yoko Ono. The assassin, whose name does not merit mention, supposedly believed that he was compelled to shoot Lennon for being an impostor of sorts, in conflict with his own inner mental model that he somehow took for real. And that's all I have to say about that.

I had just come back from having a pleasant meal at IHOP in south Gainesville and quickly tuned my tiny black and white TV on to ABC to watch the tail end of the Monday Night Football game featuring "my" Miami Dolphins, struggling through a rebuilding year and trying to ruin the playoff hopes of their divisional rival New England. Which they accomplished, booting the game-winning field goal at the tail end of the game, to loud cheers from the home Miami crowd. But I quickly learned with that good news that something very bad had happened: John Lennon had just been shot. It wasn't long before his death was reported, and soon after the game (then) ABC correspondent Geraldo Rivera was given free rein to discuss the matter, especially in the context of the friendship he had developed with the Lennons.

When someone dies, like Lennon in 1980, there is no next year, no 1981. For him, the universe has been extinguished while, from the viewpoint of the rest of the universe, the converse is true. The question I have may sound a bit silly, but I think it is pertinent nevertheless: is there such a thing as 1980? That year (well, most of it) contained within it the life essence of John Lennon, walking and breathing on Earth. Yes, that sweeping line of the "now" that separates past from future is currently 31 years down the road. But does that "now" determine reality in and of itself?

What do you think?

Twelve Seven

Seventy years ago, on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise aerial attack on the American fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, precipitating the U.S. entrance into World War II. This conflict had been going on for two years in the West, with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy pitted against the Allies (the national composition of which kept changing due to invasion and occupation). But truth be told, for all practical purposes, this horrible conflict that took so many lives began in 1931 with Japan's invasion of China.

For ten years before the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan, then ruled by a totalitarian military dictatorship that imposed the harsh Bushido nationalist doctrine on its population, brutalized the Chinese people as it enacted its own "Lebensraum" policy long before Hitler invaded Eastern Europe. In fact, the brutality of the Nanking occupation was so severe that the Nazi German officials stationed there were reportedly horrified enough to allow fleeing Chinese sanctuary in their embassy. But I'm not trying to rip on the Japanese here...

The fact is that countries like Japan and Germany epitomize high civilization for me. As does my good ol' U.S.A....and that has me worrying a bit.

A totalitarian society practices strict control of its population through a secret police network, informants, and harsh punishment of any perceived "deviants" from the state's line. But history has shown us in a frightening way how the perception of economic prosperity as well as the notion that outside enemies are threatening the country can lead its people not only to rationalize the plight they are experiencing under their ever-diminishing liberties, but also to fully embrace their oppressive government's policies, even if they lead to war and genocide.

So here we are in America, worrying about our precious economy. We see all these enemies out there trying to undermine us and we think that we need a strong leader who will lay the law down to those other countries. And what about the moral decay that is weakening us within? We need the government to pass laws which restrict immoral behavior among the population so that we can be internally stronger. And let's also fully support the state and whatever police tactics it employs to squelch constitutionally-protected peaceful dissent, because we all know how those good-for-nothing protesters are just trying to undermine us. Well, at least SOME of us want that, judging by the crowd reactions at some of these debates that have been going on lately.

I think that the lesson most commonly taught about Pearl Harbor is to not let your guard down about your enemies. But while taking care not to let that happen, let's make sure that we don't become the enemy ourselves. Prosperity is the great justifier: be careful not to relinquish your precious rights to the state for its sake, and don't rationalize the state's behavior based on your own economic well-being: your great civilized country could turn into something very ugly...

Lord of the Rings: Added Scenes

The other day I was watching Lord of the Rings: Return of the King on one of the Encore channels. I expected a repeat viewing of a movie I have seen so many times that I can predict what the characters are about to say. But this time around, things were different: they had added many new scenes to the movie.

The part where, at Isengard, the hobbits Merry and Pippin are reunited with the rest of the "fellowship" (sans Frodo, Sam, and Boromir) is rather puzzling in the original movie. After dominating Gandalf and terrorizing the surrounding people in the first two movies with his massive army of orcs, the wizard Saruman is reduced to residing hidden in his tower, without any real power left. That is, according to a terse statement that Gandalf makes. Then, mysteriously and without explanation, after safely in Saruman's possession within the tower for the first two movies, the black palantir (a magical psychic transmission ball) appears to Pippin at the bottom of the water just outside. I found this sequence frustrating and unsatisfactory in the original movie. But the revised version I saw the other night tied up all the loose ends and nicely cleaned up the story. I wondered to myself why they didn't include this in the original.

Other scenes were added as well: some were clearly superfluous to the story, such as the drinking contest between Legolas and Gimli. Others were important, such as what happened right after Aragorn made his enlistment pitch to the army of the dead. Or the time that Frodo and Sam were in Mordor and were forced to march for a time with Sauron's orc army. These scenes were exciting, making me wonder why they were left out of the movie.

I bought the DVD set for Lord of the Rings a few years ago and now feel a bit ripped off, knowing that I am missing all of those extra scenes. But this reinsertion of scenes into established movies has been going on for quite some time. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, The Godfather, and the Harry Potter flicks have all undergone this process, making their presentation on TV always a question of whether it's the old movie or the "new, improved" version.

What is interesting to me is that the extra scene in Return of the King with Saruman, while making the story more sensible, actually makes a complete break with J.R.R. Tolkien's writing. In the book, Saruman and Grima escape to foment trouble in the Shire, which the four returning hobbits have to deal with near the ending. In the movie, the Shire residents are blissfully ignorant of all the tumultuous events that had just transpired around them, regarding the returning hobbit heroes with apathy, even a little disdain.

I welcome the new scenes: actually, I'd like to see a whole lot more...

Recovery Day

Today was one of those days that my tired body just took over and told me to step back and take it easy. Fortunately, I was off from work and could afford to do this. After dropping off my daughter at school in the morning and then sitting at the nearby Starbucks in a near-stupor for about an hour, I went home to prepare for a good, long run. Only that never happened: I went back to bed and slept a few more hours. When I awoke, I realized that this was just going to be a "recovery" day for me.

With an expected intense day of work tomorrow due to the holiday season rush, I am glad I am taking this time to rest. Who knows, I may even take it easier on my running for another day...

December Mail Rush Upon Me Again

Well, the year has once again come around full circle and here I am in early December, a postal processing employee during the intensely busy Christmas season. I expect a very busy three weeks ahead of me as we are inundated with a seemingly endless amount of parcels to sort and send to their appropriate destinations. For I operate one of the parcel sorting machines at my local plant, along with my crew of eight other workers and a supporting cast of help from other parts of the facility.

Unfortunately, with the (what I consider very ill-advised) decision by upper-level postal management to move outgoing mail processing from Gainesville to Jacksonville after December, this is probably the last great Christmas mail rush I will be working. Unless, of course, I become one of those who end up excessed to Jacksonville or Tampa a few months from now as ALL of Gainesville's mail processing operations are transferred to those two cities.

There is a lot of uncertainty regarding where I will be working in the future, and what I will be doing. But whatever happens, I will still be a proud employee of a quality organization: the United States Postal Service, as well as an even prouder member, in my 25th year, of the best labor union in the nation: the American Postal Workers Union.

Since I may be working a lot of overtime (and sleeping overtime the following day), this blog may suffer a bit in the form of gaps. But rest assured, "constant reader" (with a tip of my hat to the great Stephen King), I'm keepin' the faith here: just you keep reading my drivel, O.K.?

Even if you just hit my blog and casually read it, go ahead and anonymously leave a comment (as long as it's not spam), especially if you have a criticism...

LSU-Alabama Title Pairing Not Right

Now that LSU has beaten Georgia for the Southeastern Conference championship this year in college football, that leaves, in all probability, two SEC schools to play for the national championship: LSU and Alabama. These two teams already played each other just a month ago, with LSU prevailing 9-6 in overtime. But one might say that, just because they were from the same conference (even the same division within that conference) and already played each other, that doesn't matter since they are the two best teams in the country (according to the determining BCS ranking system). So these two, from a six-team division within a conference, have been determined to be the best two teams in the country. Why?

The Southeastern Conference has distinguished itself in the previous six years by winning every one of those national championships. But the deciding championship game that each of the SEC teams won in those years was against a school from another part of the country. The fact that the other SEC schools, apart from chiefly small colleges, dominated the schedules of LSU and Alabama, means that there is not, in my opinion, a sufficiently strong enough point of reference to automatically lift the SEC high above all of the other conferences in stature and give Alabama, the team that lost to LSU, a shot at the title.

I would much rather see a team like Oklahoma State play LSU than Alabama. The BCS system in college football is an abysmal failure. It needs not just reform: it needs to be completely overturned in favor of a nationwide playoff system.

Stealth Spam Comments

Since you are obviously currently reading this blog, you are probably doing everything you can right now to keep yourself from becoming completely overcome by its dazzling, profound wit and wisdom. Seriously though, to be perfectly truthful about it, I don't promote this blog on the Internet and not that many people read it. Maybe they like it, maybe they don't: I don't know since few of them leave comments. Of the ones that do, though, I appreciate those comments whether they agree or disagree with me. Well....except for one type of "comment", that is...

Blogger, the Google blog publisher under which I write this blog, has a spam comment feature that keeps a lot of that unwelcome stuff from ever bothering me. Unfortunately, some of those out there promoting their own little businesses on the Internet have recognized that their free-advertising-via-comments is being cut down by spam-filters, so they adapted to this by actually leaving terse, bland, and unspecific pseudo-comments. With their business websites accessible through their "names" they used as submitters. Such was the case, among way too many I have been getting, with the phony comment for my "Two Bumper Stickers" article the other day. The writer wrote a broken tweet-length sentence saying that my bumper sticker article was nice and thanks for sharing it. Just enough to pass through a spam filter. No way am I going to publish it as a comment. And his name referred back to a business, naturally.

Once again, I strongly welcome comments. As a rule of thumb, though, just make sure that (1) you address specific things I wrote within the article and (2) don't advertise your business through your comment.

I don't think that's asking too much.

Unit 3 Arabic Vocabulary

Once again, this is from Teach Yourself Arabic by Jack Smart and Frances Altorfer. The pages where the new words are mark after each initial word for a new page.

أين...ayna.....where, 55
عن إذنك...:an idhn-ik.....excuse me (to a woman), 56
إنجلترا...ingiltarra.....England
عمان...:ammaan.....Amman
أردني...urduni.....Jordanian
إنجليزي...ingliizi.....English
مع الأسف...ma:a l-asaf.....I'm sorry
لا...laa.....not
فقط...faqaT.....only
العلربية...al-:arabiyyah.....Arabic, the Arabic language, 57
بطلاقة...bi-Talaaqah.....fluently
قليلة...qaliilah.....a little, few (fem.)
ما عملك؟...maa :amal-ik.....what do you do? (to a woman)
جامعة لندن...jaami:at landan.....University of London
طبيب...Tabiib.....doctor
طالب...Taalib.....student, 58
مدرس...mudarris.....teacher
مهندس...muhandis.....engineer
مدير...mudiir.....manager
رئيس...ra'iis.....boss
متحف, متاحف...matHaf, mataaHif.....museum, 59
كثيرة...kathiirah.....many, much (fem.)
جسر, جسور...jisr, jusuur.....bridge
محل, محلات...maHall, maHallaat.....shop, store
جامعة...jaami:ah.....university
وسط...wasT.....middle
غرفة...ghurfah.....room, 63
أتكلم...atakallam.....I speak
تتكلم...tatakallam.....you speak (masc.)
تتكلمين...tatakallamiin.....you speak (fem.)
يتكلم...yatakallam.....he speaks
تتكلم...tatakallam.....she speaks
مكتوم...maktuum.....concealed, 64
مكتوب...maktuub.....written
مسموح...masmuuH.....permitted
ممنوع...mamnuu:.....forbidden
مبصوط...mabSuuT.....contented, happy
مفروض...mafruuDH.....necessary, obligatory
أية...ayya.....which (fem.), 66
قليلا...qaliilan.....slightly, a bit
مشهور...mashhuur.....famous, 67
صيدلية, ات...Saydaliyyah, -aat.....pharmacy
سعيد...sa:iid.....happy, joyful

Urban Meyer Takes On Ohio State Coaching Job

At the close of his valiant and pressure-packed attempt at the national title for the 2009 college football season, University of Florida head coach Urban Meyer suddenly announced his resignation, for undisclosed medical reasons. A little while later, he changed his mind: he would return for 2010, but allow an assistant coach to temporarily take over the head coaching role until the fall. But still, a few months later, Meyer couldn't hold himself back and once again took charge of spring practice. The following 2010 season, though, saw him play a much more passive, seemingly detached role on the sidelines; the Gators also suffered through a lackluster, disappointing season. Coincidence? Maybe, but Meyer resigned for good at the end of that season.

Now, after a year away from coaching, and working as a very good and respected ESPN football analyst, Urban Meyer is once again diving head first into a challenging, high-stress coaching position, this time taking over scandal-riddled Ohio State. Meyer is from Ohio and once served as an assistant coach at Ohio State. Still, I have heard some unhappy rumblings around me here in Gainesville from UF fans who think that he somehow betrayed the Gators by going over to Ohio State. I beg to disagree, but am still a little worried, although not at all surprised, by our esteemed former coach's decision.

I don't have the slightest doubt that Urban Meyer suffered some sort of serious medical condition aggravated by his Type-A "alpha male" personality that seeks out stressful situations as challenges to be conquered. The fact that he first resigned late in 2009, then decided to came back to coach in the fall, and then couldn't wait to do that before jumping back into the fray during the spring, shows me that he is suffering from an inner conflict between his competitive nature and his better health interests. And now he has done it again: since the Florida job is taken by Will Muschamp, Meyer can't go back. Besides, he saw the unexpected opportunity to coach in his old place in his old home state and took it. When Meyer finally did resign from Florida for good, there was no hint that the Ohio State program was running headlong into a scandal and that its longtime coach would be terminated. So this is no "Nick Saban" scenario: unlike Saban, who deserted one team after only two years (without accomplishing anything for it and leaving it in complete disarray) for another the next year, Meyer gave the University of Florida two national championships and a close run for a third while serving for six years. His departure was for health reasons, which is why I'm a little worried about his new job.

The fans in Columbus are just as rabid for their Buckeyes as is the Gator "Nation" for their team. Urban Meyer is once again jumping into a situation with this Ohio State job, this time for six years, that may well tear him apart. Maybe I'm wrong and that the pressure won't get to him and destroy his health. I hope so, but for his sake (and that of his family) I wish he had stayed in broadcasting. As far as the University of Florida is concerned, though, he has absolutely nothing to apologize for.

I wish Urban Meyer the best in his new job and his life. Not that I intend to start rooting for Ohio State anytime soon..