On Again, Off Again Classical Music Radio Station Back On Again

Back in June, I reported that WUFT-FM was planning to begin broadcasting its classical music station, formerly only available on HD radio and the Internet, on the FM band.  Then, last month I heard it on the radio, on 102.7.  After noting this on my October 8th blog entry, the station then promptly went off the air...making me wonder whether it wasn't just a mistake on their part.  But this afternoon it was once again back on the air...

Sometimes when I'm driving, I like to hear classical music as a soothing background sound...the "new" station is a blessing.  This time around, I'm hoping that it will remain on the air...

Asimov Misses Kindle's Advent by Some 26,000 Years

Sometimes I am amazed at how on-target science fiction writers from the past have been able to predict future developments in technology...and sometimes I'm just as amazed when they are terribly far off-the-mark.  Take, for example, the late Isaac Asimov's 1982 novel Foundation's Edge.  It is set some 26 thousand years into the future, when faster-than-light space travel (through "hyperspace") has been available for humanity for almost all of that time...and nuclear technology has developed on a "micro" scale.  The story's main characters of councilman Golan Trevize and historian Janov Pelorat are about to embark in space on a ship that is mentally driven, with their quest being the rediscovery of the planet Earth.  Pelorat is a rather stuffy old academician, and he wants to take his materials with him on the trip.  In italics, I have provided a short excerpt from the book at this point:

Golan Trevize asked Professor Pelorat, "Are you ready?"

"With this I am", Pelorat said and held up a square wafer about twenty centimeters to the side and encased in a jacket of silvery plastic.  Trevize was suddenly aware that Pelorat had been holding it since they had left his home, shifting it from hand to hand and never putting it down, even when they had stopped for a quick breakfast.

"What's that, Professor?"

"My library.  It's indexed by subject matter and origin and I've gotten it all into one wafer.  If you think this ship is a marvel, how about this wafer?  A whole library!  Everything I have collected!  Wonderful!  Wonderful!"

The "wafer"? I don't know how you would call it, but to me it's nothing less than a Kindle, which came out in 2007...only 25 years after the publication of Foundation's Edge.  Yet the good professor compares its level of technology favorable to the hyperspace-capable spaceship...something that in our own present minds has to be thought of as next-to-impossible.  I don't think that Isaac Asimov, not to mention other science fiction futurist writers of his era, understood the upcoming information technology revolution and how quickly and pervasively it would affect the world.  On the other hand, almost all of them had humankind traveling widely in space by our time and establishing settlements on the moon and other planets...

Rooting Against the Unbeatens in College and NFL Football

It's at about the midpoint in the 2015 National Football League regular season...and about three fourths of the way through the NCAA college football season.  At this point, depending on how my "main" teams, the NFL's Miami Dolphins and the NCAA's University of Florida Gators, are doing, my emphasis on the various games I watch changes.  In both the professional and college leagues, I have my favorites besides the Dolphins and Gators.  But if either team is doing well in a particular year and could use a "boost" by another team losing...even one I usually support...then my loyalties can change.  This year the Miami Dolphins are suffering a mediocre season (so... what's new), destined to go nowhere except home at the end of the regular season.  But the Florida Gators, having clinched the Eastern Division of their Southeastern Conference for the first time since the Urban Meyer/Tim Tebow team of 2009, have a real shot at making the four-team national championship playoffs.  Just winning the rest of the regular season games and the SEC playoff game might accomplish this outright, but there are still some undefeated teams left out there...and I have been rooting for them to lose in order to enhance Florida's prospects for selection.  Even to the point of going against Michigan State, which I have supported over the last few years...so I was delighted to see them upset yesterday 39-38 to Nebraska and becoming a one-loss team (which I can once again support).  I wanted Florida State, a one-loss team and future Gator opponent, to defeat unbeaten and top-ranked Clemson (a school I usually like)...but to no avail.  And the game played between two undefeated teams in the Big 12, TCU and Oklahoma State, was a win for me regardless of the result...but I leaned toward the lower-ranked Cowboys (who prevailed 49-29).  I remember taking an interest in seeing teams ranked ahead of the Gators losing in late-season games back in 2006 and 2008, years that they eventually won the national championship.  It's happening again this year.  But Florida has got to keep on winning, too...that last performance against Vanderbilt had better not be repeated against South Carolina or Florida State, much less the eventual winner (probably Alabama) of the SEC Western Division...

Since Miami doesn't seem interested in making the NFL playoffs this year, regardless who they put in as their head coach, I have a different emphasis affecting the teams I root for late in the season.  Besides supporting secondary teams I like (that seem to have a shot at the playoffs) such as the New York Giants, Seattle, and Green Bay, I am also pulling against any remaining undefeated teams...until they lose at least one game, that is.  This is because I remember the perfect 1972 Miami Dolphins season, a feat that hasn't been matched since (although New England very nearly pulled it off in 2007)...and I don't want any other team to match their accomplishment.  At this writing, Carolina is the only undefeated team left in the National Conference, while three others are without a loss in the American: Denver, Cincinnati, and New England.  Ultimately, at worst we could end up with just one perfect season, but I want everybody to have stumbled at least once.  But should any of the teams manage this near-impossible feat, I'm pulling for Cam Newton's Panthers to do it.  And once again, I'm hoping against hope that the Giants might be able to pull it all together at the end of the year and advance in the playoffs: they seem to be the only ones not intimidated by the Patriots.  Let's see...2007: Giants barely make the playoffs but beat favored Patriots in Super Bowl...2011: Giants barely make the playoffs but beat favored Patriots in Super Bowl...2015: will this be a continuation of the four-year cycle?

Books I'm Currently Reading

I am currently rereading Philip Pullman's fantasy series His Dark Materials.  The first book, The Golden Compass, I read again just recently.  I just finished book number two, titled The Subtle Knife, and am now a little more than halfway through the final one, The Amber Spyglass.  I find Pullman's writing style and presentation a joy to read, and wish others would write stories the way he does.  I am also nearing the end of Sue Grafton's series of short novels based on letters of the alphabet.  My next book, which I'm about to start, is "V" is for Vengeance.  After that, it's "W" and "X"...and then my reading will have caught up with Grafton's writing.  I am also planning to take on a popular 2015 novel: Paula Hawkins' The Girl on the Train, which has been on the New York Times bestseller list for months...

That's the positive side of my reading right now.  On the negative side, I seem to be stuck in a number of books, a couple of them not so good...and a couple of them worthy classics.  The books are Disclosure by Michael Crichton, The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, and Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.  The problem with Disclosure is that I am not only completely out of touch with its main character, with whose developing plight I'm expected to sympathize, but the cutting edge sci-fi aspect to it is outdated...by twenty years.  With The Casual Vacancy, Rowling introduced way too many characters at the very beginning and she hops around in a confusing manner from one of the many subplots to another.  Les Miserables is a good book as I see it, but it is very, very long...and I already know some things that happen to the main characters, not a good inducement to read further.  Melvilles' Moby Dick seems to be the most promising of the lot...I just need to take the time to read it...

Just Finished Reading Sue Grafton's "U" is for Undertow

"U" is for Undertow is novelist Sue Grafton's 21st book (out of presumably 26) in her "alphabet mystery" series, set in the late 1980s in southern California and featuring Kinsey Millhone, a private eye in her late thirties.  I enjoyed the previous "T" book and was looking forward to reading this one.  I wasn't disappointed.  Grafton seems to be fully back into her writing, and this story of a little girl's disappearance back in 1967 from a fenced-in back yard of an upscale neighborhood...and how Kinsey solves it...provides the necessary elements in terms of character development and suspense as to what happened.  This story, unlike many of the others, has Kinsey pretty much staying in her hometown of Santa Teresa; the fact that she recognizes some of the players in her investigation from her old high school years is important.  Along with the mystery of the missing girl, Kinsey uncovers some old mysteries from her childhood past...and discovers a new perspective on her estranged, domineering grandmother...

In "U" is for Undertow, as well as in many of her other books in this series, Sue Grafton seems to take great pleasure in exposing the decadence and feeling of privilege of many people living affluent lifestyles...many if not most of them enjoying the fruits of other people's ideas and labor.  In the hoity-toity Horton Ravine subdivision, where the story is focused, alcoholism, negligence, drug peddling and abuse, and burglary among its residents are presented as almost normal aspects of life...while they take great pains to make themselves look better than everyone else.  I like that about Grafton and have felt, from my childhood school days around snobbish, self-important classmates with rich parents, that many in the "upper" classes are nothing better than leeches on the hard work of others...

Record High Temperatures in Gainesville Today

Saturday afternoon I went outside here in Gainesville to run a little...it was 83 degrees with 53% humidity.  Not all that pleasant and a little hot and muggy for this time of year, but I could take it. Then on Sunday I repeated my run...it was also 83, but the humidity had climbed to 68%. Ugh.  Yesterday I went out to run and the temperature had climbed to 86, with the humidity still in those unpleasant-but-tolerable sixties.  Today I stood outside and was astounded at the heat.  I check my weather app on my phone and discovered that it was 91.  Then I checked that against the record high for Gainesville, Florida on November 3: 88 degrees in 1972!  The average high for this date is only 78!

I had been looking forward to a cooler, dryer November after this past extended hot and wet summer...but it looks as if I'm going to be looking forward a little longer...

K.C. Beats Mets to Win World Series as Harvey Falters in Ninth

I was realistic while watching last night's fifth game in this year's World Series, with Kansas City leading the New York Mets three games to one, with just one more victory needed to capture the 2015 title.  It would be nice for "my" Mets to win at least this game, but I felt that the Royals would eventually win out in the long run.  New York had their ace pitcher Matt Harvey and he was in top form, throwing a four-hit (all singles) shutout through eight innings with just one base-on-balls. With a 2-0 lead to protect, Mets manager Terry Collins had decided to let their closing reliever Jeurys Familia cover the top of the ninth to finish the home win and extend the series to a sixth game in Kansas City.  But upon hearing that he wouldn't be finishing the game, Harvey pitched a minor fit in the dugout and pushed Collins to change his mind.  Collins relented and let Harvey pitch...and disaster ensued. First, he walked the lead-off hitter and then gave up a double, which drove in a run to make it 2-1.  Then, with the damage already done, Collins brought in Familia to protect a one-run lead with no outs and a runner on second.  The second run scored on a throwing error at the plate by the Mets first baseman Duda, and it was 2-2...destined for extra innings.  The Royals went on to score five runs in the twelfth inning and took the World Series, four games to one.

A lot of people are criticizing Collins' decision to let Harvey pitch, but I beg to differ.  His pitch count per inning had remained consistent throughout the game and he had demonstrated continuing control over his placement.  Had Collins put in Familia, who had not exactly been consistent on the mound of late, that might have backfired as well and folks would be saying that he erred in not keeping Harvey in there for the ninth.  It was a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't type of situation, and I sympathize with the Mets manager.  Besides, I think that the Kansas City batters had more than a little bit to do with the outcome, regardless which pitcher the Mets ended up using...

Just Finished Reading Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale

From time to time I read the New York Times fiction books bestseller list in my Sunday newspaper, looking for good reading prospects.  I filter out those books that look like parts of series and focus on self-contained stories...as well as books that remain on the list for several weeks.  Until just recently, Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale has been on the bestsellers list for many weeks, and I decided it was time to give it a look.  Besides, by doing it this way before, I got another "bird" book, Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch, and that one turned out to be a winner as well...

The Nightingale, the title referring to a nickname given to one of the characters, is a historical fiction drama set in France during its Nazi German occupation from 1940 to 1945.  The protagonists, from whose perspectives the author presents the story's narrative, alternating one with the other, are sisters Isabelle and Vianne.  Isabelle is bold and lives her life on the edge, by her emotions...while Vianne is cautious and deliberative.  They are conflicted with each other by their actions, as well as by mutual grievances from the past.  But war has come to France, despite all guarantees to the contrary, and the two sisters must deal with the German occupation, each in her own way...

That's about as far as I can go about the story itself without giving away too much, but I can say that Kristin Hannah did a remarkable job with the intensity and depth of her characters, as well as demonstrating that, in times of conflict like war, moral decisions are often not only difficult to make...in some circumstances, they are nearly impossible.  This book was so good that it did something books rarely do...it made me cry.  And that's about all I need to recommend The Nightingale for anyone interested in a good story with memorable characters...and you'll also learn quite a bit about history in the process...

My October 2015 Running Report

The month of October featured me running on a cushioned surface to protect my feet as I recovered from plantar fasciitis in my right foot.  I have also been doing foot stretching exercises to alleviate the problem.  Today I ran a short distance on asphalt, on the road around my block, about .7 mile...and feel no foot pain.  I ran on every day of the month, and amassed 260 miles...

Next month I will step up my outdoor running, which should be more pleasant with the expected cooler fall season temperatures and dryer weather.  There is a half-marathon in Gainesville in the middle of the month, and the Turkey Trot, a 10K race, will be held around Thanksgiving.  Whether or not I run in either of these depends on how well my transition to road running goes in the next couple of weeks...

I Rank The Doors' Songs From Top to Bottom

One of the best rock music acts in the late sixties and early seventies was The Doors, with singer/songwriter Jim Morrison, lead guitarist/songwriter Robby Krieger, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, and drummer John Densmore.  They made six studio albums from 1967 to 1971 and generated more than their fair share of controversy before Morrison died in 1971.  When I was growing up at the time, I was only familiar with their singles releases.  My favorite songs of theirs at that time were Touch Me and Love Her Madly.  Now, since I have all albums and have listened to each a number of times, I have my own list of favorites...and not-so-favorites.  Here are all of their songs from the six albums as I personally rank them according to my liking.  After each song, the album it's on is indicated by the following code: The Doors [D], Strange Days [SD], Waiting for the Sun [WS], The Soft Parade [SP], Morrison Hotel [MH], and L.A. Woman [LA].  What are your favorite Doors songs?

1 THE WASP (Texas Radio & the Big Beat) [LA]
2 Peace Frog [MH]
3 Touch Me [SP]
4 Roadhouse Blues [MH]
5 Love Her Madly [LA]
6 Shaman's Blues [SP]
7 Alabama Song [D]
8 Riders on the Storm [LA]
9 Hello I Love You [WS]
10 Runnin' Blue [SP]
11 L.A. Woman [LA]
12 Light My Fire [D]
13 Hyacinth House [LA]
14 Yes the River Knows [WS]
15 Do It [SP]
16 The End [D]
17 Not to Touch the Earth [WS]
18 The Changeling [LA]
19 L'America [LA]
20 Break on Through [D]
21 When the Music's Over [SD]
22 People are Strange [SD]
23 Ship of Fools [MH]
24 I Looked at You [D]
25 Soul Kitchen [D]
26 Five To One [WS]
27 Tell All the People [SP]
28 Take It as It Comes [D]
29 End of the Line [D]
30 Easy Ride [SP]
31 Land Ho! [MH]
32 Queen of the Highway [MH]
33 Strange Days [SD]
34 Moonlight Drive [SD]
35 Summer's Almost Gone [WS]
36 Blue Sunday [MH]
37 Indian Summer [MH]
38 The Spy [MH]
39 My Eyes Have Seen You [SD]
40 The Soft Parade [SP]
41 Cars Hiss By My Window [LA]
42 Waiting for the Sun [MH]
43 Spanish Caravan [WS]
44 Been Down So Long [LA]
45 Twentieth Century Fox[D]
46 You Make Me Real [MH]
47 Love Me Two Times [SD]
48 The Unknown Soldier [WS]
49 Wishful Sinful [SP]
50 Crystal Ship [D]
51 Maggie Mcgill [MH]
52 We Could Be So Good Together [WS]
53 My Wintertime Love [WS]
54 Crawling King Snake [LA]
55 Wild Child [SP]
56 Back Door Man [D]
57 My Wild Love [WS]
58 Unhappy Girl [SD]
59 You're Lost Little Girl [SD]
60 Love Street [WS]
61 I Can't See Your Face in My Mind [SD]
62 Horse Latitudes [SD]

Went to Friends of the Library Book Sale Last Sunday

From last Saturday through yesterday (Oct. 24-28), Gainesville had its twice-a-year Friends of the Library book sale, which always attracts a big crowd.  Back in April, I went there with my son Will on Saturday morning when the sale began...the people at the North Main Street warehouse where it is held were so densely packed that it was nearly impossible to do any effective browsing.  This time around, Will repeated the Saturday morning visit there while I slept in.  Instead, I drove around on Sunday afternoon, found a parking space close to the site, and, although there were still many people there, I found that I could maneuver around the facility.  I needn't have bothered, though: I chose the three books I wanted to buy (for the grand sum of one dollar) at the first table I reached, marked "Science Fiction and Fantasy".  These books were Disclosure by Michael Crichton, The Winds of Altair by Ben Bova, and Expanded Universe by Robert Heinlein.  Disclosure doesn't exactly fit into the sci-fi genre of fiction, but since the author had other works in that area (like Andromeda Strain, Prey, and Jurassic Park), that's where it was stocked.  Ben Bova is an author that I've heard good things about but haven't yet read.  And Expanded Universe is a collection of short science fiction stories and essays by Robert Heinlein, one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time.  I've begun reading Disclosure, published in 1993, and already I can see that it is seriously outdated.  The novel deals with the development of computer software technology and the vision of using CD-ROMs to store massive amounts of data. On the other hand, the idea of virtual reality technology, which seems for some reason to be lagging behind in its development and marketing in our "real" world, is being pushed in the story (back in 1993) as something about to explode upon the scene...

The books should be fun reading, and I'm looking forward to reading some of the views of Heinlein on various issues...

Just Finished Reading Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird

When, after more than fifty intervening years before author Harper Lee published Go Set a Watchman, the sequel to her famous To Kill a Mockingbird, I became aware of just how embedded within the American psyche the original story had become, I finally got around to reading it for myself, never having seen the movie adaptation starring Gregory Peck.  Worthy of an almost universal reading assignment in high school English classes, somehow I had avoided such an assignment during my tenure as a student in the early 1970s...

To Kill a Mockingbird is told in the first person by the character of Jean-Louise "Scout" Finch, a young girl who lives with her widowed attorney father Atticus and her older brother Jem in Maycomb, Alabama, a small town distant from any big city.  It is the mid-1930s and Scout is entering a most memorable period in her life.  After all, she's just started the first grade!  But upon encountering her teacher for the first time, she discovers that practically everything she says is frowned upon in the classroom...even the fact that at six years of age she can already read quite well...thanks to the teaching of Calpurnia, the family's long-time cook.  In the meantime, her friend Dill, who keeps getting passed off from one family to another, often finds himself living with his Aunt Rachel in Maycomb.  Together with Jem, the three go on dares to the forbidden house in town where the reclusive Arthur "Boo" Radley lives in complete seclusion.  Who is this mysterious figure and how important is he in determining the outcome of the story?  Guess you'll have to read it to find out...

While the childhood dramas and adventures of Scout's life are going on, she discovers that her father Atticus (whom the children always address by his first name) is weighted down by a case he is working on.  Atticus has been appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a young black man accused of raping a white woman.  To Atticus, the accusation is false, but he realizes that in defending Tom, he is fighting an uphill battle against the prejudiced hearts of the adult white population...especially those of the all-white jury that will determine the verdict.  Also, the anger at Atticus for defending a black man spills over into the lives of his own children, who are taunted with racial epithets by other kids...and even adults who should have known better...

To Kill a Mockingbird is a story told on different levels.  On one level, it is something of an adventure story of a spunky little girl in a small southern town of the thirties.  On another, it is story of that child's awakening to the complex and often ugly world of adult society, complete with its bigotry and injustice...as well as the fact that pigeonholing people by race or family obscures and diminishes their value and significance as individuals.  And on still another level, in a more general sense, it is a lesson on how anyone, no matter how "good" of a life they lead, can have areas in their heart full of darkness, ignorance, and hate... 

As for the book's title, yes, Harper Lee does get around to explaining its meaning...

Baseball World Series & NBA Regular Season Starts Tonight

I don't understand why Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association pick the middle of the week to launch their championship series and regular season, respectively...unless it's due to the fact that football so dominates the spectator sports culture in this country at this time of year that other major sports would suffer in comparison were these games to take place on the weekend.  That's too bad for me, since I'll be at work when the Kansas City Royals host the New York Mets and Lebron James' Cleveland Cavaliers face off against injury-prone Derrick Rose's Chicago Bulls.  Fox (Gainesville's Cox Channel 13) will show the baseball game while TNT (Ch. 45) will show the hoops contest (and after that one, the opener between New Orleans and Golden State)...

As a side note, Major League Soccer's playoff schedule also begins in the middle of the week, as UniMas (Ch.90) will show the DC United-New England and Seattle-LA Galaxy matches Wednesday evening and the Montreal-Toronto and Portland-Kansas City matches on Thursday.  Again, I'll be at work and miss all of them.  Sigh...

My Top Ten South Park Episodes

South Park is one of those long-running television series that you either have come to like...or hate.  One problem that some folks have with it is the lack of respect it shows for the taboo subjects in our society...in other words, it's an equal opportunity iconoclastic satire show, destined to challenge your cherished notions if you watch it for any length of time.  I'm not too keen on the extensive profanity, and some of the shows that focus either on private body functions or religion don't seem very amusing to me.  But from time to time, South Park strikes a chord and comes out with a memorable episode.  It's an animated series set in the small city of South Park, Colorado.  The main characters are late-elementary school buddies Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny...and occasionally Butters. Stan's father Randy, along with some of the school staff, figures in several of the stories. To date, this series, begun in 1997, has 260 episodes.  However, I haven't seen most of the more recent ones, and if I peruse the TV schedule, I usually pass up on most of the episodes featured...I'm interested in only about fifty of them.  For those who have seen this show and like at least some of the episodes, here is my personal top ten list of favorite episodes...

1-THE LOSING EDGE--Stan's South Park little league baseball team is glad to finally be finishing their boring season...the kids are now looking forward to getting back to what they really want to do all summer: play video games.  But they find out that because they're such winners, then they'll have to keep playing other statewide teams for the championship.  They desperately try to throw games, but discover that their opponents are also desperate to lose to them!  What makes this episode the best is the role that Stan's dad takes as the "fighting father" who always end up arrested for fighting an opposing father. The ending is classic.

2-PINEWOOD DERBY--Stan's entry in the annual Pinewood Derby is illegally altered by his dad Randy, who has inserted a supermagnet after breaking into the Hadron Collider in Europe.  The model car goes shooting out into space...only to be picked up by an alien ship on the lookout for planets developing space travel with warp speed.  Randy takes over from here...

3-TWO DAYS BEFORE THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW--Stan and Cartman drive a boat into a beaver damn and cause a neighboring community to be flooded.  The adults determine the flooding's cause to be global warming...and the panic ensues...

4-SMUG ALERT--Kyle's dad has a new hybrid Prius and he nags the rest of the town about how they are ruining the environment with their gas guzzlers. When they object, he moves Kyle and his family to San Francisco where he can live among like-minded people.  Stan writes and performs a song to change South Park residents' minds about hybrids...with unintended consequences.  Meanwhile, Cartman, without Kyle to torment, desperately schemes up a mission to San Francisco to rescue him and bring him back...

5-SOMETHING WALL-MART THIS WAY COMES--When a new Wal-Mart comes to South Park, its residences find themselves irresistibly drawn to its doors.  Meanwhile, other businesses in town close down and the boys find themselves walking through a squalid ghost town...that's what's left of South Park.  To rid themselves of Wal-Mart, they travel to company headquarters to air their grievances...while Cartman fights their efforts...

6-RAISINS--Partially a parody of Goth culture and partially a parody of the Hooters type of restaurant chain, Stan, after his girlfriend dumps him, is depressed.  His friends take him to Raisins, where they hope the pretty girls working there will cheer him up.  Instead, Stan feels worse and decides to join up with the morose and cynical Goth kids at school.  Meanwhile, naive Butters falls in love with a Raisins girl who leads him on for tips...

7-UP THE DOWN STEROID--Crippled Jimmy is determined to win the Special Olympics and finds himself hooked on steroids.  Meanwhile, Cartman, upon hearing that the winner receives a big money prize, decides to enter as being mentally-challenged...

8-THE BIGGEST DOUCHE IN THE UNIVERSE--The highlight of this episode, in which Kenny's soul is trapped inside Cartman's body, is the conflict between rationalist skeptic Stan and John Edwards, the Sci Fi Channel charlatan who claimed to be able to talk to dead people.  In frustration, Stan nominates  Edwards for (the episode's title)...leading to one of the funniest endings in the series...

9-MANBEARPIG--This episode is all about Al Gore and his fascination with...himself. Gore is on a mission to educate the public about the extreme danger of "Manbearpig", which he sees signs of everywhere he looks.  Never a fan of Al Gore, I think he nevertheless would have been a better choice for president in 2000 than Dubya.  Still the guy IS a bit of a head case, isn't he?

10-THE UNGROUNDABLE--Butters becomes part of the "vampire" movement at school so he can avoid obeying his parents.  Meanwhile, the Goth kids take offense at the vampire kids' similar appearance...

Miscellaneous Sports Comments

--To those who think team sports is all mechanics and that assembling a squad with talent is all that is necessary for success, I refer you to the Miami Dolphins and Florda Gators football teams.  The Dolphins went all out in the off-season to put together an imposing lineup on defense that would complement, if not surpass, their already capable offense.  But in the first four games, the "stars" did not work together as a unit and displayed little emotion.  The result: one win and three losses.  Now, with a shakeup in the coaching lineup, they are operating on the same page and are showing the spirit that their fans expect.  And the result under new head coach Dan Campbell? A 38-10 thrashing of Tennessee last week and an incredible 41-0 lead at HALFTIME today against Houston! The same is true for University of Florida football, which under its previous coach played in an undisciplined and sporadic manner.  This year, the new coach has brought together players that are probably no more talented than last year's...and of course, many of them ARE from last year.  What a difference, with a consistent output of effort, selfless teamwork, and self-control on the field, that their first-year head coach Jim McElwain has produced so far...

--In baseball's major leagues, I naturally root for the two Florida teams to make the playoffs and face off in the World Series.  Since that obviously wasn't going to happen this year, I went for the New York teams instead.  But although the Yankees choked against Houston in their wild card game, the Mets have fought their way to a World Series against last year's American League champion Kansas City.  Should be fun to watch: the only problem is I'll be at work for the first game, scheduled for this Tuesday evening...

--I was watching English Premier League soccer this morning, and they (NBC Sports) featured a match between cellar-dwelling (20th place) Sunderland and 18th place Newcastle.  Sunderland controlled the game, winning 3-0 for their first victory of the season and finally climbing out of last place.  I think they've discovered their formula for success: just play Newcastle every week...

Just Finished Reading John Grisham's A Painted House

Before I picked up a copy of John Grisham's novel A Painted House (published in 2001), I had read four other books from this prolific writer who tends to specialize in fiction relating to law and politics: The Pelican Brief, The Firm, The Appeal, and The Brethren.  I thought I'd read A Painted House, a story steeped in childhood memories and nostalgia, as a departure from Grisham's usual focus...

The setting of A Painted House is the Chandler family's cotton farm in lowland eastern Arkansas in 1952. Luke Chandler, who is seven at the time of the story and a die-hard (and very frustrated) St.  Cardinals baseball fan, is the first-person narrator looking back in time from an adult perspective.  It's cotton-picking season and the Chandlers, short on manpower, go out and hire Mexican migrants and a hill family named the Spruills to help with the harvest.  Without wanting to give away the story, let's just say that Luke's experiences with the Mexicans and Spruills drive the plot and, as he says himself, change his life.  I will say this much, though: Luke reminded me a lot of little Harry Potter in the first couple of books in J.K. Rowling's series by how much he likes to sneak around and eavesdrop on others, accumulating for himself a burden of secrets.  Also, Grisham was great with the unforgettable characters he introduced, especially Luke's grandparents, parents, Cowboy (one of the Mexicans)...and Tally, Trot, and Hank Spruill.  And then there is Luke's older Uncle Ricky, who is serving as a soldier in the Korean War and, despite his absence, plays his own important role in the story...

A Painted House was adapted to television as a movie in 2003.  I'm not sure I want to see it, though, as I have already formed my own images of the characters and events.  A Painted House gives a time capsule look at 1952 in a poor rural part of the country, showing the more traditionally based attitudes of the people back then.  I definitely recommend it... 

Super-Hurricane Patricia About to Strike SW Mexico Coast

When I finally dragged my sorry old body out of bed this morning, Melissa had already been up for a few hours and had an impressive news story ready for me: a new hurricane is about to hit Mexico.  Upon further investigation, I discovered that Hurricane Patricia, with sustained winds of 200 mph, is already the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere.  Formed in the eastern Pacific, it will soon hit the southwestern Mexico coast between the cities of Manzanillo (pop. 110,000, Colima State) and Puerto Vallarta (pop. 200,000, Jalisco State).  The former city is the major port outlet for Mexico City's trade in the Pacific, and the latter is a major tourist center.  Patricia, once inland, is expected to miss the large city of Guadalajara (pop. 1.5 million) to the west, but this storm, although relatively small for the concentrated force around its eye, will most likely devastate a large area of land.  The good folks at The Weather Channel are predicting that the brunt of Patricia's tornado-level winds will miss major populated areas, but there are still coastal villages between Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo that will be subjected to those winds and a strong ocean surge.  Once it is inland and weakening, I expect that the main damage and danger to lives will be heavy flooding as it will dump its water over a mountainous area with valleys...

Just Finished Reading Sue Grafton's "T" is for Trespass

As I have been working my way, in chronological order, through Sue Grafton's "Alphabet Mystery" series, I have just finished "T" is for Trespass.  Because I was disappointed in her previous "R" is for Ricochet and "S" is for Silence (especially the latter), I was a little apprehensive about undertaking this next book in the series.  As it turned out, I had no cause for concern: "T" is for Trespass is one of Grafton's best...

Our hero, California-based private sleuth Kinsey Millhone, finds herself in a war of wits and daring with Solana Rojas, a con artist and master of stealing identities.  Solana, this sociopath's latest assumed name, has her own racket going whereby she "cares" for elderly people living alone...while robbing them and ultimately killing them, making the deaths appear to be natural.  Kinsey's octogenarian and obnoxious neighbor Gus finds himself stuck with Solana and the fight is on, first to uncover the villain's designs and then to rescue Gus.  I liked the suspense-filled struggle between Kinsey Millhone and Solana Rojas...it reminded me of the old confrontations between Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty...

"T" is for Trespass features a couple of other subplots, as Sue Grafton's stories usually do.  One thing that became more noticeable with this book, published in 2007 but set back in 1988, is how Kinsey shows herself to be computer-illiterate as she is totally clueless about the use and function of floppy disks.  The irony of this is that, by the book's release in 2007, a large segment of the computer world's users would also be clueless about floppy disks, albeit for a completely different reason: their obsolescence...

A Look At My Favorite Soccer Leagues

I took a few minutes today, while watching a replay of the Bundesliga's match between Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich, to check out the soccer standings in the various leagues I'm interested in.  And by "interested in", I am referring to those leagues whose games are broadcast on my TV: Major League Soccer (for the U.S. and Canada), Mexico's Liga MX, England's Barclay's Premier League, and Germany's Bundesliga...

The Major League Soccer regular season is nearly over, with a game or two remaining.  "My" Orlando City, a first-year expansion team in the league, has distinguished itself with a respectable 12W-13L-8D season...but will just miss making the playoffs.  The two teams that have stood out this year are Dallas in the West and the New York Red Bulls in the East.  These two are now the only ones left vying for the league's best overall regular season record...and then the championship playoffs will start (involving 12 qualifying teams)...

Mexico's Liga MX also has a championship playoff season following its regular season...which is split into two parts.  The 2015 Apertura season is nearing its end, with four games left for most of the teams.  Right now, UNAM Pumas are leading the standings, while the team I follow, UANL Tigres, as usual, are thick in the playoff hunt (for which 8 teams will qualify)...

In England's Premier League, defending champion Chelsea is trying to recover after a horrendous season start.  Meanwhile, the other usual standout teams of Manchester City, Arsenal (my favorite), and Manchester United are leading the "table", in that order.  Since the end of last season, when cellar-dwelling Leicester City avoided relegation by erupting on a season-closing winning tear, I have been rooting for them, too...and they continue to do well, in 5th place in the standings so far...

Germany's Bundesliga has some of the best soccer I've seen...I'm glad that Fox Sports is broadcasting some of their games...just as I'm glad that NBC Sports shows the English league.  Bayern Munich is totally dominating the league so far, with no end to their phenomenal success in sight.  I probably enjoy watching them play more than any other team in any of the above four leagues because of their high level of skill and team coordination...

There's only so much time I have to watch TV, and with that there is only so much time that they are showing soccer.  I'm starting to get a little tired at the interruptions in the various leagues' schedules as the players go back for a while to play on their own countries' teams in national matchups...I couldn't have cared less who won between the U.S. and Mexico in their recent overhyped match.  I much prefer watching league competition...

Just Finished Rereading Books by Asimov and Pullman

I just finished rereading two books from series I've enjoyed a few years ago.  One is science fiction writer Isaac Asimov's closing volume to his Foundation series, titled Foundation and Earth. The other is The Golden Compass, the opening book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials fantasy series.  Perhaps you saw the movie based on this book. I didn't, and am rather glad: it wasn't much of a success and no others were made for the series...leaving viewers twisting in the wind with an unfinished story (the same happened with the movie Eragon). As for my review of this book...and the series as a whole...here is a link to my own blog article, written back in June, 2009, and titled Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. I enjoyed reading The Golden Compass this time around, largely due to the fact that I wasn't expending that much effort trying to understand the mysterious and somewhat complicated world that Pullman was presenting...

As for Foundation and Earth, I also enjoyed reading it once again. However, since one of the best things about this book was the surprise ending, I naturally didn't find it quite as gratifying as before.  The Asimov universe is comprised of many, many stories, books, and series and spans some 25,000 years in imagined future time.  And then, after he died in 1992, other science fiction writers wrote stories that belonged to this framework.  I'm not sure that I want to read any more stories by Isaac Asimov for a while...maybe later I'll read some of his many short stories, most of which I have stashed away somewhere in my garage...