Tuesday's List: I Rank Radiohead's Studio Albums

The British alternative rock band Radiohead has been around for more than thirty years, and with the same lineup of Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Colin Greenwood, and Phil Selway.  They are known most for their debut hit single "Creep" in 1992...but this is a band that has since then grown musically by leaps and bounds.  In early 1998 I would listen regularly to my local alternative rock station and they would play Radiohead's "Karma Police", one of my favorite songs during that year.  Five years later I chose "There There" as my top song of 2003.  But it wasn't until 2010 when I truly began to explore this talented group's discography: I ended up with all of their albums on my mp3 player and would listen to a shuffle of their tracks while training for the marathon in the fall and early winter of that year.  I still like to listen to them, and they've remained together...with the same members...every four or five years producing new material which I regularly add to my collection. Incidentally, I never did care too much for "Creep", while "These Are My Twisted Words", one of my all-time favorite songs of theirs, appears on none of their albums and was never released as a single: go figure... 

And now here's my list, from top to bottom, of my ranking of Radiohead's nine studio albums over the years.  The albums' titles are in capitals while I've listed beneath each one my favorite three tracks in order of preference.  Hope you enjoy it...

1 KID A (2000)
       Morning Bell
       In Limbo
       Idioteque
2 IN RAINBOWS (2007)
       Faust Arp
       Reckoner
       All I Need
3 HAIL TO THE THIEF (2003)
       There There
       Sail to the Moon
       Go to Sleep
4 AMNESIAC (2001)
       I Might Be Wrong
       Morning Bell/Amnesiac
       Dollars and Cents
5 A MOON SHAPED POOL (2016)
       Burn the Witch
       Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief
       The Numbers
6 OK COMPUTER (1997)
       Karma Police
       Paranoid Android
       Lucky
7 THE KING OF LIMBS (2011)
       Little By Little
       Codex
       Morning Mr Magpie
8 THE BENDS (1995)
       Planet Telex
       Black Star
       Street Spirit (Fade Out)
9 PABLO HONEY (1993)
       Lurgee
       I Can't
       Thinking About You

Favorite Musical Acts Releasing New Albums

I've been sitting here thinking about my favorite current musical acts, and what they are up to. Sufjan Stevens has just come out with a collaboration album with other musicians titled Plantetarium, Gorillaz just released their fifth studio album, Humanz, after a six-year hiatus.  Arcade Fire has a new album to be released July 28th, to be titled Everything Now. I have been waiting a long time for Beck to release his next album, but he seems to be in no hurry...no problem, I'm sure I'll enjoy it when he ever gets around to it.  Regina Spektor and Radiohead had their own album releases last year with Remember Us to Life and A Moon Shaped Pool, respectively.  And then there are the bands Kasabian and Spoon, each group with a brand-new album: For Crying Out Loud and Hot Thoughts.  I have been listening to the album Blurryface by the very popular duo Twenty One Pilots and so far two of its tracks are favorites of mine: Ride and Heavydirtysoul.  But it looks as if these two may soon be joined by some other new songs as I go about procuring and listening to these new albums...

Just Finished Reading The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsely

Susanna Kearsely writes historical romance novels, a genre I've previously avoided.  Her The Winter Sea came out in 2008, three hundred years after the events she covered in it.  Back in 1708, hopes for the reestablishment of Scottish independence from England were dashed when the attempted landing of James, son of the former King James of England and Scotland, was aborted.  What happened way back then, and why is it that novelist Carrie McClelland, who is the story's main protagonist, seems to have a special link to one of the figures from that time...a young woman named Sophia Paterson?  Carrie has writer's block as she researches the above historical scenario for her new romance novel and moves to the Scottish coastline around gloomy Slain's Castle, the site of young James' intended invasion, to gain inspiration and break out of her rut.  In the process she discovers a "genetic memory" tying herself to Sophia, who turns out to be a distant ancestor.  And so is laid out the basic structure of this story, with the narrative of 2008/Carrie and her personal life toggling back and forth with that of 1708/Sophia and her personal life.  Of course, if you're one who tends to think that simply sharing some DNA code with a distant ancestor will impart their life's memories to you is an extremely absurd notion, you just might have some issues with this tale's credibility.  But that's okay with me, because after all, it's just a story and let's not get too serious about it all...

In the final analysis...in spite of the genetic memory nonsense...I found myself enjoying this novel.  Sure, it had its romance aspect...not something I'm particularly inclined toward with my reading interests.  But the characters were interesting and I did learn some things about history in the process.  The one major problem I had was a decision that Sophia made toward the story's end that I thought was extremely insensitive and which ran completely contrary to the compelling character that Kearsely had created for her.  But since describing this in more detail would be giving away too much of the ending, I had better leave that to you, the potential reader, to find out for yourself.  In any event, The Winter Sea was a pretty decent story...looks like I may be trying out another one of Susanna Kearsely's books down the road...

Belmont Stakes Post Time Today: 6:37 pm

The Belmont Stakes, the third jewel in three-year-old thoroughbred horse racing's annual Triple Crown, will take place later today...post time is scheduled at 6:37.  Neither Always Dreaming nor Cloud Computing, the respective winners in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, will be running...nor will Classic Empire, which finished second in the Preakness.  So it's all pretty anticlimactic, this 2017 Belmont, with many unfamiliar names and a few that have run in previous jewels.  The current favorite, always subject to change, is Irish War Cry.  But Lookin at Lee finished well in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, and it's the one I am going with to win today's event.  But as has been the case so many times before, there is a strong chance that a new horse will run away with it all. Although this year's Belmont, the longest of the Triple Crown races at a mile and a half, features few familiar horses, it looks to be the most wide-open of the three, with just about anyone in its twelve-horse field a potential winner.  I almost forgot about the Kentucky Derby last month but managed to watch it...I did completely forget about the Preakness.  I haven't forgotten the Belmont Stakes, though, and plan to see what happens.  C'mon, Lookin for Lee!

Later, after the race...Tapwrit outran Irish War Cry and won it...not the most memorable Belmont by a "longshot"...

Quote of the Week...from Tony Robbins

We aren't in an information age, we are in an entertainment age.               ---Tony Robbins

Anthony Robbins is a well-known self-improvement guru who has been around for decades.  I read one of his books back in the 1990s, but haven't kept up with him...hope he's doing well.  Back then, Robbins had taken ideas he had heard from other sources and assembled them into a program to help people to be more proactive and take personal responsibility for their own lives.  That's great, I'm all on board with that...but things like the coal-walking ceremony at the end of his seminars?  Well, that's not so "hot"...

I don't know the context of the above quote of Robbins, but I can certainly understand its meaning anyway.  We are living in an age of information explosion, with the Internet making just about any kind of learning available with a few clicks of a mouse.  Yet folks in general seem more interested in using it for entertainment than enlightenment.  When you're out in public and you see someone just staring at their cell phone, they're probably watching sports or a video on YouTube or Facebook...or just scrolling down the latter for provocative posts.  But even if you get offline and just watch television, there are relatively very few channels that are devoted for teaching or information, the overwhelming majority of them being designed to lull the viewer into a complacent state of mental lethargy.  I think it's telling that, concurrent with the just-recent ability to access so much information, there has been an explosion in the popularity of mindless "reality" shows...and one such host even got himself elected president, even with all that has been made public about him.  But human nature being what it is, why should I be surprised that people will opt for entertaining themselves over learning?  I for one like my soccer matches and old reruns...but I also like to watch science and history shows...

I think that the media nowadays goes out of its way to assume that their users have attention deficit disorder and will zone out after a few seconds on a channel or website if they don't somehow get stimulated.  I write relatively short articles on my blog here, but even with their brevity very few seem to have the small amount of concentration needed to get through them.  So if you've made it this far, you're one of the special few left on this planet with anything resembling an attention span...congratulations!
 

6/4 Sermon on 1 John, Part 8

The sermon series Let There Be Light, focusing on the New Testament book of 1 John, continued last Sunday at The Family Church here in Gainesville with senior pastor Philip Griffin delivering the eighth installment, titled Spiritual Discernment.  The Bible text was from Chapter 4, Verses 1-6...displayed below in the New International Version via Bible Gateway...

1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

⁴ You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

There are a lot of lies in this world of ours.  Some of them we hear and some we speak to ourselves.  Philip mentioned some examples of self-deception: "If I fail I'm a failure", "I must have people's love and approval", "If things get bad they won't get better", "I don't belong", and "If I feel rejected I withdraw".  And in this political world of alternative parallel "realities", each side accusing the other of "fake news", it is certain that we cannot believe all we hear...and need to be able to test it all for veracity.  This is also true within the church itself, with...as the pastor noted...the loss of absolute truth and tolerance of anything as growing problems needing redress.  So how can we effectively test a spiritual teaching or philosophy?  Pastor Philip gave three questions: does it diminish Jesus, does it reflect this world's value system, and does it add to or take from scripture.  Diminishing Jesus as being merely a teacher or prophet, at least to me, would be the most telling indication that there is an aberration from the truth being taught.  But since today's world is in some ways much different from when the scripture was written (and in some ways not at all), it might at times be necessary to prayerfully work to make its applications more relevant for the times we live in.  And any interpretation of scripture, by its very nature...including this very sermon and my article about it...will add something to it.  But I get the gist of what Philip was saying, and this leads to his final point: developing discernment...

How does one develop spiritual discernment? Pastor Philip made it simple, but sometimes simple things are difficult to undertake if one isn't used to them: pray for guidance, study scripture consistently so that diverging teachings can be recognized...and participate in the church body with others, which can provide a healthy check to one's self-taught lies.  In all of this, Philip stressed that our actions stem from our hearts...and what is in our hearts stem from our beliefs...and Jesus should be the foundation of those beliefs...

You can watch Pastor Philip's message...including many others...on the church's YouTube video website, which you can access through this link: [link].  The Family Church conducts its Sunday morning services, which include the weekly message, praise music, and opportunities for prayer and fellowship...along with complimentary coffee...at 9:30 and 11...

Wednesday's Short Story Review: The Weapon by Fredric Brown

As a kid I often went over to my father's bookshelves, looking for interesting books to read...almost all of them cheap paperbacks. A couple that drew my attention were collections of science fiction short stories by Fredric Brown, a mid-twentieth century writer who also wrote mystery stories.  But I think that those brief tales contained within my father's books had a big influence on me as a reader and writer...much more than from the detached teachers I had to deal with throughout my elementary and high school years.  Brown's stories are in several of the Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories year-by-year anthologies published by DAW books, and a few years ago I bought a compilation of this underrated author's science fiction short stories.  The Weapon, which I'm about to discuss, appeared in Asimov's series for the year 1951...

Like Orson Scott Card's tale Deep Breathing Exercises, The Weapon is only five pages long but, like the former, packs a big punch...especially with its unforgettable last line.  As what is that final line?  Well, I'd be giving everything away if I revealed it, and that isn't how I operate here.  Instead, I'll just say that a scientist, living with his mentally-challenged son, is busy working on a plan for an ultimate weapon, a doomsday machine if you will.  Another man, who calls himself Niemand, pays him a visit and implores him to seek reason and stop his project...otherwise there will be much death and catastrophe.  The story plays itself out...on those short five pages...between these three characters, each likable in their own individual way.  But the ending...

The ending to The Weapon carries for me an application to today's world when someone who isn't necessarily all there "upstairs" can convince enough people to vote him or her into office...and then be left with the authority to start a planetary nuclear war.  Enough said: read The Weapon and see for yourself...I'm not sure whether or not it is available on the Web...

Tuesday's List: Some Important Chinese Characters

Many years ago I developed my own "basic" list of about 1,700 Chinese characters from the Doug Defrancis series of college Chinese texts, published by Yale University Press, memorizing them and practicing writing them out.  But I found that this list was very inadequate for preparing me to read books and articles in Chinese, so I searched for one encompassing a more comprehensive amount of the most important Chinese characters.  The following is a list of some 3,755 Chinese characters that I adapted from a site called accesschinese.com, which has a lot of interesting material about Chinese language and culture: check it out!  I put my list here solely for my personal educational use. In doing so, I'm switching from the traditional character system to the simplified system now more commonly used.   I've also digitalized my list, so I can now carry it around with me to consult.  As I mentioned before, I adapted the list for my own purposes, numerically re-indexing the characters, which are arranged in their respective pinyin (Romanized) counterparts' alphabetical order...and then in order of the tones.  With each new pinyin term, I've begun marking them in boldface. No, this isn't a typical "Tuesday" list of my favorite albums or TV shows that readers might be able to relate to, but it is very meaningful, at least for me.  I'm still going to need to take each new, unfamiliar character and look up its meaning along with how it is compounded with other Chinese characters to produce what we in English typically think of as words: in other words, a long-term project...

0-99
　　　
０　　　啊　阿　埃　挨　哎　唉　哀　皑　癌　
１　蔼　矮　艾　碍　爱　隘　鞍　氨　安　俺　
２　按　暗　岸　胺　案　肮　昂　盎　凹　敖　
３　熬　翱　袄　傲　奥　懊　澳　芭　捌　扒　
４　叭　吧　笆　八　疤　巴　拔　跋　靶　把　
５　耙　坝　霸　罢　爸　白　柏　百　摆　佰　
６　败　拜　稗　斑　班　搬　扳　般　颁　板　
７　版　扮　拌　伴　瓣　半　办　绊　邦　帮　
８　梆　榜　膀　绑　棒　磅　蚌　镑　傍　谤　
９　苞　胞　包　褒　剥                                           

100-199
　　　
０　　　薄　雹　保　堡　饱　宝　抱　报　暴　
１　豹　鲍　爆　杯　碑　悲　卑　北　辈　背　
２　贝　钡　倍　狈　备　惫　焙　被　奔　苯　
３　本　笨　崩　绷　甭　泵　蹦　迸　逼　鼻　
４　比　鄙　笔　彼　碧　蓖　蔽　毕　毙　毖　
５　币　庇　痹　闭　敝　弊　必　辟　壁　臂　
６　避　陛　鞭　边　编　贬　扁　便　变　卞　
７　辨　辩　辫　遍　标　彪　膘　表　鳖　憋　
８　别　瘪　彬　斌　濒　滨　宾　摈　兵　冰　
９　柄　丙　秉　饼　炳　

200-299
　　　
０　　　病　并　玻　菠　播　拨　钵　波　博　
１　勃　搏　铂　箔　伯　帛　舶　脖　膊　渤　
２　泊　驳　捕　卜　哺　补　埠　不　布　步　
３　簿　部　怖　擦　猜　裁　材　才　财　睬　
４　踩　采　彩　菜　蔡　餐　参　蚕　残　惭　
５　惨　灿　苍　舱　仓　沧　藏　操　糙　槽　
６　曹　草　厕　策　侧　册　测　层　蹭　插　

７　叉　茬　茶　查　碴　搽　察　岔　差　诧　
８　拆　柴　豺　搀　掺　蝉　馋　谗　缠　铲　
９　产　阐　颤　昌　猖　  

300-399
　　　
０　　　场　尝　常　长　偿　肠　厂　敞　畅　
１　唱　倡　超　抄　钞　朝　嘲　潮　巢　吵　
２　炒　车　扯　撤　掣　彻　澈　郴　臣　辰　
３　尘　晨　忱　沉　陈　趁　衬　撑　称　城　
４　橙　成　呈　乘　程　惩　澄　诚　承　逞　
５　骋　秤　吃　痴　持　匙　池　迟　弛　驰　
６　耻　齿　侈　尺　赤　翅　斥　炽　充　冲　
７　虫　崇　宠　抽　酬　畴　踌　稠　愁　筹　
８　仇　绸　瞅　丑　臭　初　出　橱　厨　躇　
９　锄　雏　滁　除　楚　

400-499
　　　
０　　　础　储　矗　搐　触　处　揣　川　穿　
１　椽　传　船　喘　串　疮　窗　幢　床　闯　
２　创　吹　炊　捶　锤　垂　春　椿　醇　唇　
３　淳　纯　蠢　戳　绰　疵　茨　磁　雌　辞　
４　慈　瓷　词　此　刺　赐　次　聪　葱　囱　
５　匆　从　丛　凑　粗　醋　簇　促　蹿　篡　
６　窜　摧　崔　催　脆　瘁　粹　淬　翠　村　
７　存　寸　磋　撮　搓　措　挫　错　搭　达　
８　答　瘩　打　大　呆　歹　傣　戴　带　殆　
９　代　贷　袋　待　逮　

500-599
　　　
０　　　怠　耽　担　丹　单　郸　掸　胆　旦　
１　氮　但　惮　淡　诞　弹　蛋　当　挡　党　
２　荡　档　刀　捣　蹈　倒　岛　祷　导　到　
３　稻　悼　道　盗　德　得　的　蹬　灯　登　
４　等　瞪　凳　邓　堤　低　滴　迪　敌　笛　
５　狄　涤　翟　嫡　抵　底　地　蒂　第　帝　
６　弟　递　缔　颠　掂　滇　碘　点　典　靛　
７　垫　电　佃　甸　店　惦　奠　淀　殿　碉　
８　叼　雕　凋　刁　掉　吊　钓　调　跌　爹　
９　碟　蝶　迭　谍　叠　

600-699
　　　
０　　　丁　盯　叮　钉　顶　鼎　锭　定　订　
１　丢　东　冬　董　懂　动　栋　侗　恫　冻　
２　洞　兜　抖　斗　陡　豆　逗　痘　都　督　
３　毒　犊　独　读　堵　睹　赌　杜　镀　肚　
４　度　渡　妒　端　短　锻　段　断　缎　堆　
５　兑　队　对　墩　吨　蹲　敦　顿　囤　钝　
６　盾　遁　掇　哆　多　夺　垛　躲　朵　跺　
７　舵　剁　惰　堕　蛾　峨　鹅　俄　额　讹　
８　娥　恶　厄　扼　遏　鄂　饿　恩　而　儿　
９　耳　尔　饵　洱　二　

700-799
　　　
０　　　贰　发　罚　筏　伐　乏　阀　法　珐　
１　藩　帆　番　翻　樊　矾　钒　繁　凡　烦　
２　反　返　范　贩　犯　饭　泛　坊　芳　方　
３　肪　房　防　妨　仿　访　纺　放　菲　非　
４　啡　飞　肥　匪　诽　吠　肺　废　沸　费　
５　芬　酚　吩　氛　分　纷　坟　焚　汾　粉　
６　奋　份　忿　愤　粪　丰　封　枫　蜂　峰　
７　锋　风　疯　烽　逢　冯　缝　讽　奉　凤　
８　佛　否　夫　敷　肤　孵　扶　拂　辐　幅　
９　氟　符　伏　俘　服　

800-899
　　　
０　　　浮　涪　福　袱　弗　甫　抚　辅　俯　
１　釜　斧　脯　腑　府　腐　赴　副　覆　赋　
２　复　傅　付　阜　父　腹　负　富　讣　附　
３　妇　缚　咐　噶　嘎　该　改　概　钙　盖　
４　溉　干　甘　杆　柑　竿　肝　赶　感　秆　
５　敢　赣　冈　刚　钢　缸　肛　纲　岗　港　
６　杠　篙　皋　高　膏　羔　糕　搞　镐　稿　
７　告　哥　歌　搁　戈　鸽　胳　疙　割　革　
８　葛　格　蛤　阁　隔　铬　个　各　给　根　
９　跟　耕　更　庚　羹　

900-999
　　　
０　　　埂　耿　梗　工　攻　功　恭　龚　供　
１　躬　公　宫　弓　巩　汞　拱　贡　共　钩　
２　勾　沟　苟　狗　垢　构　购　够　辜　菇　
３　咕　箍　估　沽　孤　姑　鼓　古　蛊　骨　
４　谷　股　故　顾　固　雇　刮　瓜　剐　寡　
５　挂　褂　乖　拐　怪　棺　关　官　冠　观　
６　管　馆　罐　惯　灌　贯　光　广　逛　瑰　
７　规　圭　硅　归　龟　闺　轨　鬼　诡　癸　
８　桂　柜　跪　贵　刽　辊　滚　棍　锅　郭　
９　国　果　裹　过　哈　

1000-1099
　　　
０　　　骸　孩　海　氦　亥　害　骇　酣　憨　
１　邯　韩　含　涵　寒　函　喊　罕　翰　撼

２　捍　旱　憾　悍　焊　汗　汉　夯　杭　航　
３　壕　嚎　豪　毫　郝　好　耗　号　浩　呵　
４　喝　荷　菏　核　禾　和　何　合　盒　貉　
５　阂　河　涸　赫　褐　鹤　贺　嘿　黑　痕　
６　很　狠　恨　哼　亨　横　衡　恒　轰　哄　
７　烘　虹　鸿　洪　宏　弘　红　喉　侯　猴　
８    吼　厚　候　后　呼　乎　忽　瑚　壶　葫　
９　胡　蝴　狐　糊　湖　

1100-1199
　　　
０　　　弧　虎　唬　护　互　沪　户　花　哗　
１　华　猾　滑　画　划　化　话　槐　徊　怀　
２　淮　坏　欢　环　桓　还　缓　换　患　唤　
３　痪　豢　焕　涣　宦　幻　荒　慌　黄　磺　
４　蝗　簧　皇　凰　惶　煌　晃　幌　恍　谎　
５　灰　挥　辉　徽　恢　蛔　回　毁　悔　慧　
６　卉　惠　晦　贿　秽　会　烩　汇　讳　诲　
７　绘　荤　昏　婚　魂　浑　混　豁　活　伙　
８　火　获　或　惑　霍　货　祸　击　圾　基　
９　机　畸　稽　积　箕　

1200-1299
　　　
０　　　肌　饥　迹　激　讥　鸡　姬　绩　缉　
１　吉　极　棘　辑　籍　集　及　急　疾　汲　
２　即　嫉　级　挤　几　脊　己　蓟　技　冀　
３　季　伎　祭　剂　悸　济　寄　寂　计　记　
４　既　忌　际　妓　继　纪　嘉　枷　夹　佳　
５　家　加　荚　颊　贾　甲　钾　假　稼　价　
６　架　驾　嫁　歼　监　坚　尖　笺　间　煎　
７　兼　肩　艰　奸　缄　茧　检　柬　碱　硷　
８　拣　捡　简　俭　剪　减　荐　槛　鉴　践　
９　贱　见　键　箭　件　

1300-1399
　　　
０　　　健　舰　剑　饯　渐　溅　涧　建　僵　
１　姜　将　浆　江　疆　蒋　桨　奖　讲　匠　
２　酱　降　蕉　椒　礁　焦　胶　交　郊　浇　
３　骄　娇　嚼　搅　铰　矫　侥　脚　狡　角　
４　饺　缴　绞　剿　教　酵　轿　较　叫　窖　
５　揭　接　皆　秸　街　阶　截　劫　节　桔　
６　杰　捷　睫　竭　洁　结　解　姐　戒　藉　
７　芥　界　借　介　疥　诫　届　巾　筋　斤　
８　金　今　津　襟　紧　锦　仅　谨　进　靳　
９　晋　禁　近　烬　浸　

1400-1499
　　　
０　　　尽　劲　荆　兢　茎　睛　晶　鲸　京　
１　惊　精　粳　经　井　警　景　颈　静　境　
２　敬　镜　径　痉　靖　竟　竞　净　炯　窘　
３　揪　究　纠　玖　韭　久　灸　九　酒　厩　
４　救　旧　臼　舅　咎　就　疚　鞠　拘　狙　
５　疽　居　驹　菊　局　咀　矩　举　沮　聚　
６　拒　据　巨　具　距　踞　锯　俱　句　惧　
７　炬　剧　捐　鹃　娟　倦　眷　卷　绢　撅　
８　攫　抉　掘　倔　爵　觉　决　诀　绝　均　
９　菌　钧　军　君　峻　

1500-1599
　　　
０　　　俊　竣　浚　郡　骏　喀　咖　卡　咯　
１　开　揩　楷　凯　慨　刊　堪　勘　坎　砍　
２　看　康　慷　糠　扛　抗　亢　炕　考　拷　
３　烤　靠　坷　苛　柯　棵　磕　颗　科　壳　
４　咳　可　渴　克　刻　客　课　肯　啃　垦　
５　恳　坑　吭　空　恐　孔　控　抠　口　扣　
６　寇　枯　哭　窟　苦　酷　库　裤　夸　垮　
７　挎　跨　胯　块　筷　侩　快　宽　款　匡　
８　筐　狂　框　矿　眶　旷　况　亏　盔　岿　
９　窥　葵　奎　魁　傀　

1600-1699
　　　
０　　　馈　愧　溃　坤　昆　捆　困　括　扩　
１　廓　阔　垃　拉　喇　蜡　腊　辣　啦　莱　
２　来　赖　蓝　婪　栏　拦　篮　阑　兰　澜　
３　谰　揽　览　懒　缆　烂　滥　琅　榔　狼　
４　廊　郎　朗　浪　捞　劳　牢　老　佬　姥　
５　酪　烙　涝　勒　乐　雷　镭　蕾　磊　累　
６　儡　垒　擂　肋　类　泪　棱　楞　冷　厘　
７　梨　犁　黎　篱　狸　离　漓　理　李　里　
８　鲤　礼　莉　荔　吏　栗　丽　厉　励　砾　
９　历　利　傈　例　俐　

1700-1799
　　　
０　　　痢　立　粒　沥　隶　力　璃　哩　俩　
１　联　莲　连　镰　廉　怜　涟　帘　敛　脸　
２　链　恋　炼　练　粮　凉　梁　粱　良　两　
３　辆　量　晾　亮　谅　撩　聊　僚　疗　燎　
４　寥　辽　潦　了　撂　镣　廖　料　列　裂　
５　烈　劣　猎　琳　林　磷　霖　临　邻　鳞　
６　淋　凛　赁　吝　拎　玲　菱　零　龄　铃　
７　伶　羚　凌　灵　陵　岭　领　另　令　溜　
８　琉　榴　硫　馏　留　刘　瘤　流　柳　六　
９　龙　聋　咙　笼　窿　

1800-1899
　　　
０　　　隆　垄　拢　陇　楼　娄　搂　篓　漏　
１　陋　芦　卢　颅　庐　炉　掳　卤　虏　鲁　
２　麓　碌　露　路　赂　鹿　潞　禄　录　陆　
３　戮　驴　吕　铝　侣　旅　履　屡　缕　虑　
４　氯　律　率　滤　绿　峦　挛　孪　滦　卵　
５　乱　掠　略　抡　轮　伦　仑　沦　纶　论　
６　萝　螺　罗　逻　锣　箩　骡　裸　落　洛　
７　骆　络　妈　麻　玛　码　蚂　马　骂　嘛　
８　吗　埋　买　麦　卖　迈　脉　瞒　馒　蛮　
９　满　蔓　曼　慢　漫　

1900-1999
　　　
０　　　谩　芒　茫　盲　氓　忙　莽　猫　茅　
１　锚　毛　矛　铆　卯　茂　冒　帽　貌　贸　
２　么　玫　枚　梅　酶　霉　煤　没　眉　媒　
３　镁　每　美　昧　寐　妹　媚　门　闷　们　
４　萌　蒙　檬　盟　锰　猛　梦　孟　眯　醚　
５　靡　糜　迷　谜　弥　米　秘　觅　泌　蜜　
６　密　幂　棉　眠　绵　冕　免　勉　娩　缅　
７　面　苗　描　瞄　藐　秒　渺　庙　妙　蔑　
８　灭　民　抿　皿　敏　悯　闽　明　螟　鸣　
９　铭　名　命　谬　摸　

2000-2099
　　　
０　　　摹　蘑　模　膜　磨　摩　魔　抹　末　
１　莫　墨　默　沫　漠　寞　陌　谋　牟　某　
２　拇　牡　亩　姆　母　墓　暮　幕　募　慕　
３　木　目　睦　牧　穆　拿　哪　呐　钠　那　
４　娜　纳　氖　乃　奶　耐　奈　南　男　难　
５　囊　挠　脑　恼　闹　淖　呢　馁　内　嫩　
６　能　妮　霓　倪　泥　尼　拟　你　匿　腻　
７　逆　溺　蔫　拈　年　碾　撵　捻　念　娘　
８　酿　鸟　尿　捏　聂　孽　啮　镊　镍　涅　
９　您　柠　狞　凝　宁　

2100-2199 　　
　
０　　　拧　泞　牛　扭　钮　纽　脓　浓　农　
１　弄　奴　努　怒　女　暖　虐　疟　挪　懦　
２　糯　诺　哦　欧　鸥　殴　藕　呕　偶　沤　
３　啪　趴　爬　帕　怕　琶　拍　排　牌　徘　
４　湃　派　攀　潘　盘　磐　盼　畔　判　叛　
５　乓　庞　旁　耪　胖　抛　咆　刨　炮　袍　
６　跑　泡　呸　胚　培　裴　赔　陪　配　佩　
７　沛　喷　盆　砰　抨　烹　澎　彭　蓬　棚　
８　硼　篷　膨　朋　鹏　捧　碰　坯　砒　霹　
９　批　披　劈　琵　毗　

2200-2299
　　
０　　　啤　脾　疲　皮　匹　痞　僻　屁　譬　
１　篇　偏　片　骗　飘　漂　瓢　票　撇　瞥　
２　拼　频　贫　品　聘　乒　坪　苹　萍　平　
３　凭　瓶　评　屏　坡　泼　颇　婆　破　魄　
４　迫　粕　剖　扑　铺　仆　莆　葡　菩　蒲　
５　埔　朴　圃　普　浦　谱　曝　瀑　期　欺　
６　栖　戚　妻　七　凄　漆　柒　沏　其　棋　
７　奇　歧　畦　崎　脐　齐　旗　祈　祁　骑　
８　起　岂　乞　企　启　契　砌　器　气　迄　
９　弃　汽　泣　讫　掐　

2300-2399
　　　
０　　　恰　洽　牵　扦　钎　铅　千　迁　签　
１　仟　谦　乾　黔　钱　钳　前　潜　遣　浅　
２　谴　堑　嵌　欠　歉　枪　呛　腔　羌　墙　
３　蔷　强　抢　橇　锹　敲　悄　桥　瞧　乔　
４　侨　巧　鞘　撬　翘　峭　俏　窍　切　茄　
５　且　怯　窃　钦　侵　亲　秦　琴　勤　芹　
６　擒　禽　寝　沁　青　轻　氢　倾　卿　清　
７　擎　晴　氰　情　顷　请　庆　琼　穷　秋　
８　丘　邱　球　求　囚　酋　泅　趋　区　蛆　
９　曲　躯　屈　驱　渠　

2400-2499
　　　
０　　　取　娶　龋　趣　去　圈　颧　权　醛　
１　泉　全　痊　拳　犬　券　劝　缺　炔　瘸　
２　却　鹊　榷　确　雀　裙　群　然　燃　冉　
３　染　瓤　壤　攘　嚷　让　饶　扰　绕　惹　
４　热　壬　仁　人　忍　韧　任　认　刃　妊　
５　纫　扔　仍　日　戎　茸　蓉　荣　融　熔　
６　溶　容　绒　冗　揉　柔　肉　茹　蠕　儒　
７　孺　如　辱　乳　汝　入　褥　软　阮　蕊　
８　瑞　锐　闰　润　若　弱　撒　洒　萨　腮　
９　鳃　塞　赛　三　叁　

2500-2599
　　　
０　　　伞　散　桑　嗓　丧　搔　骚　扫　嫂　
１　瑟　色　涩　森　僧　莎　砂　杀　刹　沙　
２　纱　傻　啥　煞　筛　晒　珊　苫　杉　山　
３　删　煽　衫　闪　陕　擅　赡　膳　善　汕　
４　扇　缮　墒　伤　商　赏　晌　上　尚　裳　
５　梢　捎　稍　烧　芍　勺　韶　少　哨　邵　
６　绍　奢　赊　蛇　舌　舍　赦　摄　射　慑　
７　涉　社　设　砷　申　呻　伸　身　深　娠　
８　绅　神　沈　审　婶　甚　肾　慎　渗　声　
９　生　甥　牲　升　绳　

2600-2699
　　　
０　　　省　盛　剩　胜　圣　师　失　狮　施　
１　湿　诗　尸　虱　十　石　拾　时　什　食　
２　蚀　实　识　史　矢　使　屎　驶　始　式　
３　示　士　世　柿　事　拭　誓　逝　势　是　
４　嗜　噬　适　仕　侍　释　饰　氏　市　恃　
５　室　视　试　收　手　首　守　寿　授　售　
６　受　瘦　兽　蔬　枢　梳　殊　抒　输　叔　
７　舒　淑　疏　书　赎　孰　熟　薯　暑　曙　
８　署　蜀　黍　鼠　属　术　述　树　束　戍　
９　竖　墅　庶　数　漱　

2700-2799
　　　
０　　　恕　刷　耍　摔　衰　甩　帅　栓　拴　
１　霜　双　爽　谁　水　睡　税　吮　瞬　顺　
２　舜　说　硕　朔　烁　斯　撕　嘶　思　私　
３　司　丝　死　肆　寺　嗣　四　伺　似　饲　
４　巳　松　耸　怂　颂　送　宋　讼　诵　搜　
５　艘　擞　嗽　苏　酥　俗　素　速　粟　僳　
６　塑　溯　宿　诉　肃　酸　蒜　算　虽　隋　
７　随　绥　髓　碎　岁　穗　遂　隧　祟　孙　
８　损　笋　蓑　梭　唆　缩　琐　索　锁　所　
９　塌　他　它　她　塔　

2800-2899
　　　
０　　　獭　挞　蹋　踏　胎　苔　抬　台　泰　
１　酞　太　态　汰　坍　摊　贪　瘫　滩　坛　
２　檀　痰　潭　谭　谈　坦　毯　袒　碳　探　
３　叹　炭　汤　塘　搪　堂　棠　膛　唐　糖　
４　倘　躺　淌　趟　烫　掏　涛　滔　绦　萄　
５　桃　逃　淘　陶　讨　套　特　藤　腾　疼　
６　誊　梯　剔　踢　锑　提　题　蹄　啼　体　
７　替　嚏　惕　涕　剃　屉　天　添　填　田　
８　甜　恬　舔　腆　挑　条　迢　眺　跳　贴　
９　铁　帖　厅　听　烃　

2900-2999
　　　
０　　　汀　廷　停　亭　庭　挺　艇　通　桐　
１　酮　瞳　同　铜　彤　童　桶　捅　筒　统　
２　痛　偷　投　头　透　凸　秃　突　图　徒　
３　途　涂　屠　土　吐　兔　湍　团　推　颓　
４　腿　蜕　褪　退　吞　屯　臀　拖　托　脱　
５　鸵　陀　驮　驼　椭　妥　拓　唾　挖　哇　
６　蛙　洼　娃　瓦　袜　歪　外　豌　弯　湾　
７　玩　顽　丸　烷　完　碗　挽　晚　皖　惋　
８　宛　婉　万　腕　汪　王　亡　枉　网　往　
９　旺　望　忘　妄　威　

3000-3099
　　　
０　　　巍　微　危　韦　违　桅　围　唯　惟　
１　为　潍　维　苇　萎　委　伟　伪　尾　纬　
２　未　蔚　味　畏　胃　喂　魏　位　渭　谓　
３　尉　慰　卫　瘟　温　蚊　文　闻　纹　吻　
４　稳　紊　问　嗡　翁　瓮　挝　蜗　涡　窝　
５　我　斡　卧　握　沃　巫　呜　钨　乌　污　
６　诬　屋　无　芜　梧　吾　吴　毋　武　五　
７　捂　午　舞　伍　侮　坞　戊　雾　晤　物　
８　勿　务　悟　误　昔　熙　析　西　硒　矽　
９　晰　嘻　吸　锡　牺　

3100-3199
　　　
０　　　稀　息　希　悉　膝　夕　惜　熄　烯　
１　溪　汐　犀　檄　袭　席　习　媳　喜　铣　
２　洗　系　隙　戏　细　瞎　虾　匣　霞　辖　
３　暇　峡　侠　狭　下　厦　夏　吓　掀　锨　
４　先　仙　鲜　纤　咸　贤　衔　舷　闲　涎　
５　弦　嫌　显　险　现　献　县　腺　馅　羡　
６　宪　陷　限　线　相　厢　镶　香　箱　襄　
７　湘　乡　翔　祥　详　想　响　享　项　巷　
８　橡　像　向　象　萧　硝　霄　削　哮　嚣　
９　销　消　宵　淆　晓　

3200-3299
　　　
０　　　小　孝　校　肖　啸　笑　效　楔　些　
１　歇　蝎　鞋　协　挟　携　邪　斜　胁　谐　
２　写　械　卸　蟹　懈　泄　泻　谢　屑　薪　
３　芯　锌　欣　辛　新　忻　心　信　衅　星　
４　腥　猩　惺　兴　刑　型　形　邢　行　醒　
５　幸　杏　性　姓　兄　凶　胸　匈　汹　雄　
６　熊　休　修　羞　朽　嗅　锈　秀　袖　绣　
７　墟　戌　需　虚　嘘　须　徐　许　蓄　酗　
８　叙　旭　序　畜　恤　絮　婿　绪　续　轩　
９　喧　宣　悬　旋　玄　

3300-3399
　　　
０　　　选　癣　眩　绚　靴　薛　学　穴　雪　
１　血　勋　熏　循　旬　询　寻　驯　巡　殉　
２　汛　训　讯　逊　迅　压　押　鸦　鸭　呀　
３　丫　芽　牙　蚜　崖　衙　涯　雅　哑　亚　
４　讶　焉　咽　阉　烟　淹　盐　严　研　蜒　
５　岩　延　言　颜　阎　炎　沿　奄　掩　眼　
６　衍　演　艳　堰　燕　厌　砚　雁　唁　彦　
７　焰　宴　谚　验　殃　央　鸯　秧　杨　扬　
８　佯　疡　羊　洋　阳　氧　仰　痒　养　样　
９　漾　邀　腰　妖　瑶　

3400-3499
　　　
０　　　摇　尧　遥　窑　谣　姚　咬　舀　药　
１　要　耀　椰　噎　耶　爷　野　冶　也　页　
２　掖　业　叶　曳　腋　夜　液　一　壹　医　
３　揖　铱　依　伊　衣　颐　夷　遗　移　仪　
４　胰　疑　沂　宜　姨　彝　椅　蚁　倚　已　
５　乙　矣　以　艺　抑　易　邑　屹　亿　役　
６　臆　逸　肄　疫　亦　裔　意　毅　忆　义　
７　益　溢　诣　议　谊　译　异　翼　翌　绎　
８　茵　荫　因　殷　音　阴　姻　吟　银　淫　
９　寅　饮　尹　引　隐　

3500-3599
　　　
０　　　印　英　樱　婴　鹰　应　缨　莹　萤　
１　营　荧　蝇　迎　赢　盈　影　颖　硬　映　
２　哟　拥　佣　臃　痈　庸　雍　踊　蛹　咏　
３　泳　涌　永　恿　勇　用　幽　优　悠　忧　
４　尤　由　邮　铀　犹　油　游　酉　有　友　
５　右　佑　釉　诱　又　幼　迂　淤　于　盂　
６　榆　虞　愚　舆　余　俞　逾　鱼　愉　渝　
７　渔　隅　予　娱　雨　与　屿　禹　宇　语　
８　羽　玉　域　芋　郁　吁　遇　喻　峪　御　
９　愈　欲　狱　育　誉　

3600-3699
　　　
０　　　浴　寓　裕　预　豫　驭　鸳　渊　冤　
１　元　垣　袁　原　援　辕　园　员　圆　猿　
２　源　缘　远　苑　愿　怨　院　曰　约　越　
３　跃　钥　岳　粤　月　悦　阅　耘　云　郧　
４　匀　陨　允　运　蕴　酝　晕　韵　孕　匝　
５　砸　杂　栽　哉　灾　宰　载　再　在　咱　
６　攒　暂　赞　赃　脏　葬　遭　糟　凿　藻　
７　枣　早　澡　蚤　躁　噪　造　皂　灶　燥　
８　责　择　则　泽　贼　怎　增　憎　曾　赠　
９　扎　喳　渣　札　轧　

3700-3799
　　　
０　　　铡　闸　眨　栅　榨　咋　乍　炸　诈　
１　摘　斋　宅　窄　债　寨　瞻　毡　詹　粘　
２　沾　盏　斩　辗　崭　展　蘸　栈　占　战　
３　站　湛　绽　樟　章　彰　漳　张　掌　涨　
４　杖　丈　帐　账　仗　胀　瘴　障　招　昭　
５　找　沼　赵　照　罩　兆　肇　召　遮　折　
６　哲　蛰　辙　者　锗　蔗　这　浙　珍　斟　
７　真　甄　砧　臻　贞　针　侦　枕　疹　诊　
８　震　振　镇　阵　蒸　挣　睁　征　狰　争　
９　怔　整　拯　正　政　

3800-3899
　　　
０　　　帧　症　郑　证　芝　枝　支　吱　蜘　
１　知　肢　脂　汁　之　织　职　直　植　殖　
２　执　值　侄　址　指　止　趾　只　旨　纸　
３　志　挚　掷　至　致　置　帜　峙　制　智　
４　秩　稚　质　炙　痔　滞　治　窒　中　盅　
５　忠　钟　衷　终　种　肿　重　仲　众　舟　
６　周　州　洲　诌　粥　轴　肘　帚　咒　皱　
７　宙　昼　骤　珠　株　蛛　朱　猪　诸　诛　
８　逐　竹　烛　煮　拄　瞩　嘱　主　著　柱　
９　助　蛀　贮　铸　筑　

3900-3989

０　　　住　注　祝　驻　抓　爪　拽　专　砖　
１　转　撰　赚　篆　桩　庄　装　妆　撞　壮　
２　状　椎　锥　追　赘　坠　缀　谆　准　捉　
３　拙　卓　桌　琢　茁　酌　啄　着　灼　浊　
４　兹　咨　资　姿　滋　淄　孜　紫　仔　籽　
５　滓　子　自　渍　字　鬃　棕　踪　宗　综　
６　总　纵　邹　走　奏　揍　租　足　卒　族　
７　祖　诅　阻　组　钻　纂　嘴　醉　最　罪　
８　尊　遵　昨　左　佐　柞　做　作　坐　座

Major League Soccer Officiating is the Pits

Yesterday I was watching a Major League Soccer match between Orlando City and the Chicago Fire, held in Orlando's new soccer stadium and shown on FoxSports.  It was a tough game to get through, not because "our" Golden Lions lost...no, they drew 0-0...nor because it was so hot and humid there that I thought some of the players were close to passing out.  No, the big...and I mean MAJOR big...problem I had with this contest was the officiating.  And it's not just this game, it's a big recurring problem across a league that is struggling to gain prestige and status in the world...

In soccer, most fouls are called on the spot and the ball goes over to the other team with play quickly resuming.  Some fouls are more flagrant, though, and the referee will assign a "yellow" card to the offending player...get a second yellow and he's kicked out of the game, leaving his team short one player for the duration of the game.  But there's also the "red card" option in case a foul is extremely flagrant...in this case the player is ejected at once and the team once again has to play at a numerical disadvantage.  In yesterday's Orlando-Chicago game, Orlando players were twice given red cards and ejected, putting the team at a two-player shortage for much of the game.  The problem is that the fouls, according to what I could see as well as the TV announcers' reactions, weren't even remotely close to being flagrant...even giving out yellow cards would have been debatable.  But this is nothing new: I've seen this problem with the officials overreacting and awarding red cards ever since I began following this league three years ago and there seems to be no sign of it letting up...

It's true that the caliber of play in Major League Soccer, the premier professional league for the United States and Canada, is much lower than those top leagues in Europe like the English Premier League, Germany's Bundesliga, or Spain's La Liga.  It's even lower than its chief North American competitor, Mexico's Liga MX.  But as inferior to the other leagues that our play may be, it pales in comparison to how bad the officiating is here.  I'm getting sick of watching MLS games, to be perfectly candid, and for one reason: there is a high probability that at some time during the game officials will blow a crucial call and unfairly hand it over to one team over the other.  That Orlando was able to pull out a draw in their match yesterday made me proud, but they were cheated out of a probable victory because of lousy officiating.  When is the league going to do something about this? If they don't Major League Soccer will continue to be just a second-rate league...

Just Finished Reading Louisa May Alcott's Little Women

There was a copy of Louisa May Alcott's book Little Women in my home when I was growing up...but being a boy I wasn't about to read it...although come to think of it I did end up reading all of my sister's Donna Parker, Trixie Beldon, and Lennon Sisters books...but Little Women was old.  Well, more than fifty years later it's that much older, but I've aged as well and finally decided to delve into it.  I'm glad I did...

The setting at the start of Little Women is the early 1860s during the American Civil War as the family of a mother and her four adolescent daughters living somewhere (unnamed) in the northeastern U.S. copes with economic hardships while the father is away serving as a Union army chaplain.  The girls, in descending order of age, are Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy...each with her own distinct personality and interests. Meg is the most domestically inclined, Jo is the tomboy with a flair for writing, Beth is a shy, mercifully-inclined lover of music, and Amy, the "baby", is more self-centered and materialistic than the others and loves art.  The story concerns itself with how these girls, in their own individual ways, grow up as they help (and often challenge) each other...while their mother "Marmee" dispenses her own brand of loving wisdom throughout.  Not all is so rosy, though, and tragedies threaten and sadly strike this sweet-spirited family as well.  I wouldn't recommend Little Women for its plot and narrative as much as for its philosophical tone and unforgettable characters, and not just Meg/Jo/Beth/Amy.  The lessons contained in it for better living are not just applicable to young women: demonstrating grace, patience, forgiveness, and generosity, especially during times of hardship, are virtues sourly lacking across the demographic spectrum in today's dog-eat-dog world. Why not check out this great old American classic novel and learn a little for yourself?  Can't hurt...I came out of the experience wanting to read the sequel Little Men, which I understand also features the spunky and outspoken Jo, by far my favorite character in Little Women...

Assorted Meanderings on a Saturday Afternoon

This is one of those articles that I haven't planned...I'm just sitting here in "my" Magnolia Parke Starbucks in northern Gainesville waiting for my iced coffee...excuse me a moment, there it is.  So, where was I...oh, yes, this is more of an impromptu writing, so forgive me if I meander a bit.  Let's see, it's supposed to rain a lot up here this weekend, but it's late afternoon and so far we haven't had any rain...but the clouds are threatening.  I love overcast skies...but only when it doesn't rain.  It's also my favorite condition for going running, something I'm bent on doing more of as I try to build my endurance back up for future half-marathons...

I left for Starbucks right in the middle of professional soccer's UEFA (European) Champions League finale between Real Madrid and Juventus.  When I turned it off, the game was in the second half and tied 1-1.  And it was very exciting and obviously featured two of the best teams in the entire world...as well as possibly the greatest player,  Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo.  But I've never been all that interested in these tournaments, instead focusing on the different leagues...and except for "our" Major League Soccer, all the rest have just finished their seasons.  And yes, I intend to watch an MLS match later this evening on ESPN [correction: it's tomorrow when ESPN shows the game]...

Politically, I feel like I am making myself into something of an outcast to both sides of the ongoing Trump melodrama, wanting the man to succeed at being president but also suspicious of his weird affections for Russia's authoritarian Putin regime.  I don't think he should have decided to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Accords on climate change, but he was right about criticizing how different nations were being treated differently.  That being said, I have been frustrated looking at Facebook from time to time and seeing post after post either excoriating Trump in the most vicious terms or praising him to high heaven as America's savior.  To those pursuing their respective political agendas here, it's all personal...each "side" treats everything as if the fate of the world hangs in the balance: either stop Trump or else it's all over or stop those trying to stop Trump or else it's all over...sorry, folks, you're welcome to take me off your political message list as I'm tired of seeing all this crap.  Our president, whom I did not support in the election last year, is still our president and I respect his office and the process that elected him there.  Just because I think he's a jerk doesn't change that and I will root for him to do good things in office as well as continuing to criticize him when he flubs up...and will most likely (but not definitely) vote for someone else in the next election...but let's please get away from the apocalyptic doomsaying, okay?  Oops, sorry again, I probably offended some of you by saying that...

When I get home from work, my shift ending at midnight, I often watch Rod Serling's old Twilight Zone series, shown at 12:30 on MeTV (Cox Channel 115 in Gainesville).  But right after that program ends, they show Alfred Hitchcock Presents, a series older than Twilight Zone that goes back to the 1950s.  I hadn't seen these shows but the other night watched an episode titled "Breakdown", which starred Joseph Cotton as a man paralyzed in a car accident trying to convince others that he isn't really dead...as they wheel him into the morgue to perform an autopsy...scary stuff!  I may be finding myself looking a bit more into this series that I've managed somehow to ignore all my life...

Speaking of TV series, I've heard they're working on the next (and final?) season to Game of Thrones, based on the George R.R. Martin fantasy book series A Song of Ice and Fire.  Unfortunately for Martin's loyal readers, he has reneged on his duties as an author and lapsed with writing the next book, The Winds of Winter.  So the television series has actually gone ahead of the written series, something I find hard to forgive.  If Martin doesn't want to take up the task of concluding his series, then he should hand the work off to someone else...someone like Brandon Sanderson.  Sanderson is a very good fantasy author in his own right and finished the interminable Wheel of Time series after the original author, Robert Jordan, passed away after putting out eleven books with no end in sight and numerous subplots and new characters muddling everything beyond comprehension...which is what Martin's series is beginning to look like...

Quote of the Week...from Kevin Durant

I learned how to pass when I was real young. That's one thing I always knew how to do was find the open man.                                            ---Kevin Durant.

Actually, I have two quotes from one of the greatest basketball players of our time, Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant...who last night dominated the opening championship series game against Cleveland with his 38 points and deft ball handling, passing, rebounding, and defense.  Let me focus on the above quote for now: passing in basketball has been an underrated skill as I experienced the sport, but it is crucial to employ it in order for an offense to penetrate the defense around the basket.  When I used to watch my son...and later, my daughter, play as kids in local basketball leagues, the coaches were all very good at teaching their young players how to play defense.  But offense? It was often near-impossible to score...I remember one game that went 2-0.  The reasons are fourfold: one, children don't as yet possess the arm strength to effectively throw the ball hard and fast enough to a teammate without someone on defense catching on and intercepting it.  Two, in order for an offense to be consistently effective, all five players need to be in on passing and positioning themselves...usually in these "little" leagues there are maybe two or three who are strong players and the rest tag along, mostly ineffective.  Three, effective passing in basketball involves a well-drilled appreciation of the sport's dynamism: you pass where your teammate will be, not necessarily where he or she is right now. And four, there is a tendency...more in youth sports...for those more aggressive (and admittedly often very talented) players to hog the ball and completely forego passing, instead just bulling their way through the defense and to the basket.  The problem with all this is the false notion that to pass the ball to another is a tacit admission that they are somehow better players than oneself and can handle the ball better...when in fact it's the opposite that is probably true.  Kudos to Durant for recognizing at a very early age that there is more to basketball than fancy dribbling...any coach's son can be trained to do that...

And now for Kevin Durant's second quote: When people are used to you doing something, they want you to stay in that lane.  This statement of his carries a much broader life meaning than just basketball, and I couldn't agree with it more.  People tend to feel uncomfortable being around another who is undergoing major changes in his or her life and would prefer the old...even less mature and more selfish...version that they are used to dealing with.  What was that line in the Judy Collins song Both Sides Now?  Oh yeah, "But now old friends are acting strange, they shake their heads, they say I've changed. But something's lost but something's gained in living every day."  Growth is a very crucial aspect of a healthy life, and it is manifested in change that will cause resistance and opposition on the part of others, even if that change is for the better...

5/28 Sermon on 1 John, Part 7

Let There Be Light is the name of Pastor Philip Griffin's ongoing Sunday morning message series here at Gainesville's Family Church, based on the New Testament book of 1 John.  The most recent installment, form May 28th, is titled Relate and is based on Chapter 3, Verses 16-24: you can read the scripture passage via Bible Gateway through this link: [link]...

Pastor Philip's focus in this sermon is how real faith is reflected in our relationships, both with others and with God.  The emphasis is on placing others before ourselves, both in regard to our generosity and love as well as our expectations...especially when it comes to who needs to be "Jesus" and assume the higher role.  And that love and generosity doesn't just apply to family and friends: enemies and strangers should be recipients as well...although I'd like to add a caveat that this doesn't mean to deny reality and forego prudence and protection.  As far as our relationship with our heavenly father is concerned, by living in God's presence...as our pastor stressed...he exposes our flaws and enables us to overcome them...and empowers us to go against our more selfish inclinations and love our family, friends, and even strangers and enemies, as ourselves...

If you'd like to see this message yourself, you can click on the following link to the church's YouTube video website: [link]. The Family Church, at 2022 SW 122nd Street, holds its Sunday morning services at 9:30 and 11. Along with the pastor's sermon is exciting praise music, welcoming people, and good coffee.  A nice place to spend your Sunday morning...

My May 2017 Running Report

For all of May this year I have had to deal with recurring arm pain, missing work at the beginning of this month and laying off of the running as well for a few days.  As my situation improved, I was able to pick it back up and even ran in a race: the May 20 May Day Glow Run, held early in the evening in Tioga.  Although I'm still dealing with the arm pain, I am now fully functional and there seems to be little correlation with the pain and my activities...I have an instinctive feeling that exercise actually helps.  Anyway, my monthly total mileage was 64, and my longest single run was for that race...at 3.1 miles...

Now we're entering the hot months of June, July, and August, with very few races offered here during this span in the Gainesville area.  That's okay since my main goal this coming month is to reestablish a regular daily routine of running the 3.3-mile course I designed through my neighborhood, with travel coming up during the final week.  If there are any half-marathons in my future, they will have to wait: first things first...

Weeky Short Story Review: The Wall Around the World by Theodore Cogswell

Theodore Cogswell, who lived from 1918 to 1987, wasn't a very prolific writer, but he hit one right on the mark in 1953 with his science fiction short story The Wall Around the World, published in the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories: 15 (1953) (DAW Books, 1986).  If you started reading this brief tale but left before the ending, you might prefer to instead place it in the fantasy genre of fiction...but then you'd be missing its entire point...

A boy lives a Harry Potter-kind of life, flying on broomsticks, making incantations, and learning all sorts of magic in his magically-based society...but there are no muggles here, everyone is a wizard.  And this place he lives in is surrounded by an unsurmountable high smooth wall, with the "other" side forbidden with dire consequences of punishment.  But curious Porgie, realizing that no magic will get him over the wall to see what is beyond, begins to experiment with scientific ways to accomplish this feat...in spite of warnings from his teacher.  To see what happens, I recommend you read the story yourself, although you might find some difficulty in obtaining it...

As I see it, The Wall Around the World is a prescient analogy to what is going on now in the world around us: the contrasts between intuition and science when it comes to increasing our knowledge and enlightenment...and the gulf between the two approaches has become only wider since this story's release in 1953.  We've had the 1960s counterculture, the New Age movement, renewed interest in witchcraft and the paranormal, and different religions experiencing rebirths in popularity through fundamentalism...none of them based on science.  Yet we enjoy the fruits of scientific accomplishment as well, while at the same time some of us criticize technological development as being out of harmony with life.  People get bored watching real moon landings on TV and change the channel to watch Star Trek reruns, and then flock by the hundreds of millions to movie theaters to watch fantasy or science fiction movies.  I can understand this pushback on science to an extent when I look back on the twentieth century, the early part thoroughly dominated by a strong push for scientific and technological development...as well as two world wars, discredited political ideologies like Communism and Nazism claiming scientific justification and causing mass subjugation and millions of deaths, and the racist "scientific" field of eugenics, incorporated by the Nazis, that further damaged the image of science in the eyes of many.  And the environmental movement was also in some ways an indictment of how technology had been applied in a shortsighted manner, leading some people to mistakenly reject it in its entirely as a means of progress...

Of course, in The Wall Around the World, as well as with Harry Potter, the magic is real...whether or not there is anything of this sort happening in our world is a matter not of objective analysis but rather subjective personal conclusions.  And that, I think, is a major reason why science doesn't seem all that attractive to many while these more intuitive areas do...for in the latter we get to create our own personal "realities" and "truths" that can be neither objectively proven nor disproven...

Tuesday's List: My Favorite Star Trek (Original Series) Episodes

Like Twilight Zone, the original series version of Star Trek endures as one of my all-time favorite television series.  It originally ran on NBC from 1966 to 1969 with three seasons and 78 episodes.  Originally slotted in at 8 pm Thursdays, I would regularly miss the first half of each episode since my parents, who were autocratic when it came to TV shows they preferred, were big Bewitched fans...and that ABC comedy lasted to 8:30...keep in mind that we lived in more primitive times with only one television set.  So I came to know the endings of a lot of episodes, only later discovering how they started out.  A few years after the series was cancelled, Star Trek reruns became a favorite item on my local stations' schedules and I got to know each one well, often speaking the lines before the characters did.  For this article, I have listed my 30 favorite episodes in order of liking.  The titles are in capitals and I wrote something brief next to each so that you might be able to identify which episode I'm referring to.  By the way, what are your favorite Star Trek episodes?

And here's my list...

1 THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE ...enormous cone-shaped weapon eats planets
2 THE CORBOMITE MANEUVER ...Enterprise threatened in space...or tested?
3 THE SQUIRE OF GOTHOS ...bratty Jack Cassidy kidnaps crew to his private planet
4 THE IMMUNITY SYNDROME ...giant one-celled organism in space
5 THE MENAGERIE, PARTS 1 & ...with series pilot flashback of Captain Pike
6 THE RETURN OF THE ARCHONS ...mindless platitudes dominate a planet's people
7 THE CITY OF THE EDGE OF FOREVER ...back to the '30s, with Joan Collins
8 THE GALILEO SEVEN ...Spock logically chooses desperation in decaying orbit
9 THE CHANGELING ...Nomad destroys everything imperfect
10 MIRROR, MIRROR ...alternate universe, Spock with beard
11 WINK OF AN EYE ...people living in accelerated time take over ship
12 WOLF IN THE FOLD ...Jack the Ripper endures
13 ERRAND OF MERCY...planet's pacifists ruin war between Kirk and Klingons
14 CHARLIE X ...rescued teen orphan with angst and powers
15 OPERATION: ANNIHILATE! ...Spock hit with pain-causing blob
16 SHORE LEAVE ...events on planet respond to crew's words
17 A TASTE OF ARMEGGEDON ...virtual war between planets
18 WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE ...two of the crew grow godlike
19 THE CLOUD MINDERS ...city in the sky subjugates miners on surface
20 ALL OUR YESTERDAYS ...doomed planet finds its own past
21 A PIECE OF THE ACTION ...takeoff on gangland era
22 MIRI ...children left on planet fight the "grups"
23 THE NAKED TIME ...crew infected, change personalities
24 THE DEADLY YEARS ...Kirk and others age rapidly
25 OBSESSION ...Kirk pursues old nemesis: a deadly living cloud
26 THE TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES ...tribbles vs. the Klingons
27 THE ALTERNATIVE FACTOR ...man fights his anti-universe counterpart
28 BALANCE OF TERROR ...wily Kirk battles Romulans and cloaking device
29 THE MAN TRAP ...salt-eating creature takes on familiar forms
30 THE DEVIL IN THE DARK ...miners face vicious monster

John F. Kennedy's 100th Birthday and Memorial Day

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the first president in my memory (although I was born during Dwight Eisenhower's tenure), would be 100 years old today had he survived his assassination more than 53 years ago.  That he might have lived to today is problematic, for according to Kennedy historian Robert Dallek he suffered from numerous health problems, including the serious Addison's Disease as well as severe pain from osteoporosis of the lower back.  On the other hand, his mother Rose lived to the age of 104.  JFK only served in the White House a little less than three years, but made an enormous, positive impact on both our country and the world at large.  He not only faced down the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, but also began the process of peace between the cold war rivals with the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty the following year.  Many of Kennedy's social proposals, such as civil rights legislation and medical care for the elderly that would be eventually known as Medicare, were held up in Congress and wouldn't be passed until his successor, Lyndon Johnson, an experienced arm-twister with legislators, aggressively pushed the bills through.  And John F. Kennedy gave this nation two great worldwide images: one was the Peace Corps with American volunteers going abroad to help others...the other was the goal of landing people on the moon and returning safely...within ten years.  It was a terrible tragedy when he was murdered on that Friday afternoon in Dallas on November 22nd, 1963...I heard about it back then right after coming back to my second-grade classroom after lunch.  In my estimation, John Fitzgerald Kennedy has been the greatest president during my lifetime and I doubt that there will be one greater than him in the future...

Today was John F. Kennedy's birthday, but this year May 29th lands on a Monday, so it is also Memorial Day.  Thus we also pay our respects to the many brave and most honorable men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice...with their very lives...in order that we may enjoy living in freedom, both to express ourselves and to pursue our own dreams and beliefs.  I saw President Trump on TV earlier at Arlington National Cemetery, presenting the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier...he displayed the solemnity and respect that the ceremony entailed, an admirable job...

I for one am sorry that the tendency has been in the last few decades to diminish the practice of pledging allegiance to our American flag on different public occasions and standing in a respectful, attentive manner at the playing of the National Anthem.  Our national symbols stand for the values that those brave soldiers who died for the United States of America in combat fought to protect...for us and for future generations...

Trump, Russia, Investigations

When I was much younger...back in the early 1970s...I was frustrated by what seemed on the part of many liberal politicians and media figures then to be a double standard when it came to judging the behavior of communist nations vs. those of the rest of the world.  If Chile or another Latin American country fell to a military coup and began a right-wing autocracy, the liberals would scream bloody murder about how terrible it was...but they seemed content with brutal, totalitarian leftist societies like Mao's China, Cuba, and the Soviet Union.  With the latter, of course, the Russians were the dominant national group.  Nowadays, though, the tables seem to have turned diametrically in the opposite direction, with the politically more conservative Putin regime there encountering criticism from liberals in the West while many conservatives here and abroad are giving them a free pass, making excuses for every aggressive action they take...that is, when they aren't completely denying everything.  So now it's frustrating to have to hear conservative opinion-makers in the media refusing to accept that there is any kind of threat from Russia...and this trend seems to mostly stem from our current president, Donald Trump, and his repeated praise of Putin and strange overfriendliness with him and his cronies.  Ever since it was disclosed...before the 2016 election...that Russia had interfered on Trump's behalf and hacked Democratic Party computers and turned over embarrassing documents for release on WikiLeaks, there has been a level of suspicion of an ongoing connection between our Russian adversaries and the Trump campaign...but no proof of this has been made public.  Now there are numerous investigations going on, including one by independent counsel and former FBI chief Robert Mueller.  From time to time a leak will happen and some information about the behavior of Trump surrogates, be they current Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, or, lately, close advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner, will make it into the news.  When this happens, the right-wing deniers like President Trump, media talking heads like Fox's Judge Jeanine and Sean Hannity (who is pushing a defamatory narrative that Hillary put a hit on a former campaign worker), and others like talk radio's Mark Levin only want to criticize the leaks themselves, completely dismissing the Russian angle.  But the way I see it, were it not for that trickle of information, incomplete as it is, the American public...which should be properly informed...would not be able to recognize that there was even a problem...

The press has an important role in holding our government accountable for its actions.  We currently have a national government that sees one party controlling both the executive and legislative branches.  Referring again back to those early 1970s, the Watergate scandal might never have been uncovered had Woodward and Bernstein...without the aid of their insider "Deep Throat" leaking information...not been able to unearth the cover-up going on.   And the government then was split with the Democrats at least in control of Congress.  So now it is even more imperative that people can get an idea about what is going on, although I doubt that the Republican-led Congress will ever even consider lifting a finger to impeach a president from their own party.  And even if the Democrats take back the House of Representatives in 2018 and win every single Senate election that year, they'll still only have a 56-44 advantage in the Senate...and 67 votes are required to remove a president from office.  So all this impeachment talk being made by Trump's opposition should be taken for what it is: to weaken the Republicans and strengthen the Democrats in the next election...

I don't see any proof that Trump and his political pals have conspired with the Russian government, but I now suspect some collusion nevertheless.  What has just been revealed about Jared Kushner, a month after the election, secretly contacting the Russian ambassador in hopes of establishing a clandestine communications link between that regime and the future president...with everything said between the two parties to be available to Russian intelligence but deliberately cut off from American intelligence...sounds so sinister that I have to shake my head in disbelief when I hear apologists for Trump get on TV and try to explain it away.  Maybe they can make themselves and Trump's unquestioning fan base think it's all innocent, but it sounds treasonous to me.   And if you remember the previous article I wrote on this subject, it should be clear that I'm not quite as defensive of our sitting president on this subject as before.  Sure, the American people elected him and I recognize that, but I don't want someone in this most powerful position turning over our national secrets to the enemy while turning a blind eye to their aggression.  In other words, I'm losing trust in Donald J. Trump and now wonder about his loyalties.  And it's a shame about Kushner: I had always kind of admired him as a thoughtful, responsible voice of reason within the administration...a counter to some of his father-in-law's more objectionable behavior and outbursts.  If he leaves due to this revelation, what's going to happen to Trump's inner circle of confidants and how will it affect his actions? But maybe I'm getting way ahead of myself...after all, didn't Trump once openly brag that he could step out in the street and shoot someone and still keep his support...and then went on to win the election in spite of that inflammatory comment??!!

Attended Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap at Gainesville Community Playhouse

This afternoon Melissa and I went to see the Gainesville Community Playhouse's production of Agatha Christie's whodunit murder mystery The Mousetrap, which you can see from the above promotional picture has been going on for more than two weeks...with tonight's showing at eight and tomorrow afternoon's at two being the last ones scheduled before it closes.  It's the first time I've been to the Van York Theater, which is located in the northwestern part of Gainesville adjacent to the Millhopper Post Office on NW 16th Boulevard.  I don't think I've been to a play since my daughter's in high school a few years ago...this is the first professional production I saw since South Pacific at the Lincoln Center in NYC back in 2010...

The stage setting for The Mousetrap is simple enough: the living room area of a guesthouse, on its grand opening day.  There are eight characters, each one playing an important part in the proceedings: the young couple who have bought and opened the guesthouse, five guests, and a police detective.  And no, I'm not about to go any further than this with my descriptions...why not experience The Mousetrap for yourself, if not this time around with time quickly running out, then the next time it comes to this town or to another you happen to find yourself in...

Sitting in the second row from the stage, everything in the play seemed close-up and immediate to me.  Since the setting is England, that pesky British accent (most) of the characters assumed was at times a little challenging for me to keep up with...but that's my fault, not the excellent actors'.  And watching a live play was different than with a movie or television production...or even reading a book...in that with the latter forms, the audience/reader's attention is focused on the characters directly involved in the action or dialogue while with plays while the actors still present within the scene still have to perform within their respective characters...even when the spotlight is on someone else.  The performers in this play were very good in all aspects.  I hope to see some of them in future presentations.  And regarding upcoming productions of Gainesville Community Playhouse at the Van York Theater, Legally Blonde: The Musical with be July 7-30, Fiddler on the Roof September 23-October 16, and Little Women (which I am almost finished reading) will run November 25-December 18...

Quote of the Week...from George S. Patton

Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.
                                                               ---George S. Patton

George Smith Patton, Jr. was a famous general during World War II, commanding the Third Army through north Africa and the invasion of Sicily and the Seventh during the invasion of France and Germany.  He has always been known as a tough, demanding leader strong on discipline and personal responsibility...and of acting decisively in a timely manner.  To Patton, too many leaders plan too much when perhaps less perfect preparation and more prompt implementation would have produced better results.  To this end he depended on the resourcefulness of his officers and the soldiers under them to solve problems as the situations arose on the battlefield.  It isn't always possible to be able to pull out a manual that explains in detail how to do things, and those in leadership positions can't always explain their orders step-by-step.  So it is necessary to place some trust in those of subordinate positions to use their own abilities to come up with solutions.  This not only applies to combat situations in war, but also within the workplace and carries an important application to life in general...

With the above quote comes the implied assumption that those told to do things have been already judged to be competent at those tasks...whether a surgeon, repairperson, soldier,  or anyone else with a specialty, they obviously need much detailed training before reaching the point where the General's statement applies.  But sometimes within the managerial structure of an organization, folks forget that their subordinates have already been vested as to their competency and intelligence...and are quite able to come up with methods and solutions without someone up the authority ladder continually hovering over them and dictating each step and how to do it.  The analogy carries further, too, to how we manage ourselves in our personal lives: when faced with a challenge that involves variables and a bit of on-the-spot decision making, it won't do to beforehand sit down and try to plan out every contingency before even beginning.  In other words, much of the time you just have to wing it...