My Favorite Songs for 2018

I follow former president Barack Obama on my Twitter account...he's a refreshing example of someone whose messages embrace the constructive and positive and I always appreciate his input.  A couple of days ago he tweeted a link to his "favorites" lists for 2018, including the books he's read and his favorite songs from the year.  These lists are long...I've read a few books, too, but as for the music, I found myself turning away from the current radio playlists and album releases in favor of looking at music from the past.  Only one recent song, Arcade Fire's Creature Comfort from 2017, made my top ten favorite songs list for 2018...this sort of thing has happened with me in past years, my belated discovery in 1991 of Led Zeppelin's greatness after the release of their first box set leading me to focus on them for a couple of years back then. Likewise, this year's favorites also delve into music from years gone by...but they do represent the music I enjoyed listening to the most over the course of 2018.  And now here's my list, with the songs' original years of release following the artists' names...I wonder if Barack's heard any of them...

1 LAZY EYE by Silversun Pickups [2006]
2 OPTIMISTIC by Radiohead [2000]
3 MORNING BELL by Radiohead [2000]
4 DARKNESS by The Police [1982]
5 DETROIT, LIFT UP YOUR WEARY HEAD by Sufjan Stevens [2003]
6 JACKSONVILLE by Sufjan Stevens [2005]
7 HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY by Radiohead [2000]
8 BLACKSTAR by David Bowie [2016]
9 THE LIGHT by Regina Spektor [2016]
10 CREATURE COMFORT by Arcade Fire [2017]

Gators Break Jinx Against Michigan, Win Peach Bowl 41-15

The 2018 University of Florida football team ended its already successful season today in Atlanta's Peach Bowl with a convincing 41-15 drubbing over nemesis Michigan, which had beaten the Gators in their previous four games.  At first the game seemed very evenly played between the two teams, with UF holding a slim 13-10 halftime lead.  But early in the third quarter Florida intercepted a Wolverine pass deep in their territory and returned it back...the play flipped the flow of the game as the Gators scored on the ensuing short drive, building up a 20-10 lead and never looking back.  The Florida defense appeared to strengthen as the game wore on and sophomore quarterback Feleipe Franks was spectacular in his running and long passes.  First year head coach Dan Mullen has a lot to be proud of with this 10-3 squad...the one standout thing I'd like to see them improve on the most next year is the tendency of some of their players to engage in unsportsmanlike and embarrassing taunting and baiting against opposing players and fans.  I watched the game on ESPN, and Mullen always seemed to be available for sideline interviews...but nary a word did I hear from Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh: was he pulling some kind of silence-against-the-press act?  Or maybe I just happened to be out of the room when he was corralled for a few words. He's a good coach, but if I were a Wolverine fan I'd probably have tired of his antics a long time ago...

Many of Florida's starters are returning in 2019 and the prospects are high for this team to excel.  Let's see if Coach Mullen can keep it all together...he did a great job this year...

Quote of the Week...from Isaac Asimov

Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is. The only function of a school is to make self-education easier; failing that, it does nothing.               ---Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was a biochemistry professor much better known for his prolific output of books, most notably in the realm of science education and science fiction.  After Sputnik in 1957 put the Soviets ahead of us for a time in the space race, there was a panic in the U.S. regarding our state of science education...Asimov took a break then from his fiction writing and produced a series of very readable books spanning the fields of science and mathematics.  Early on in school, young Isaac was considered a prodigy and quickly jumped far ahead of his peers with his learning.  Which presents a bit of a problem with his above quote...

I used to be a pretty sharp little kid in elementary school, too...but definitely not at prodigy level like Asimov.  The teachers taught the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic with their specially-designed curricula, with the obvious knowledge that we children did not know beans about "self-education" and exactly what it was we were supposed to be learning.  I do agree with Asimov, though, that schools need to make self-education easier.  But to accomplish this, they need to first teach students what this means and how to do it.  And one other thing: if left to their own devices students...like folks in general...will focus on what interests them and ignore areas that don't.  It's up to schools to make sure that everyone learns about the broad range of subjects that as a society we deem important for them as later functioning adults. I don't buy the notion that little children just need for teachers to get out of their way and then they'll transform into budding Einsteins.  On the contrary, the teachers I had from elementary through high school were far too disengaged, leaving me usually drifting through the school years and feeling insignificant, if not invisible...

But education does not end with formal school and adults should know how to educate themselves, or at least know how to find the appropriate sources for the education they are seeking.  Still, you cannot self-educate if you're not motivated or curious.  And not everyone is a prodigy like Isaac Asimov was: I could have used more teacher-student interaction, not less...

Puzzled by US Senate's Generally Cavalier Attitude

Like many folks living across this great country of ours, I was able to take Christmas Day off from my job, although I worked on both the day before and after.  Some professions, like teaching, obviously have more extended breaks though the holiday season...I totally get that.  But in the midst of this federal government shutdown, the United States Senate...which is the government body that has to negotiate with President Trump over this shutdown he caused over the border wall (I support a wall, not a shutdown)...adjourned Saturday morning on the 22nd and is only today going to meet, at the late afternoon hour of 4 pm. In the meantime federal workers aren't being paid...and the surrounding businesses in the Washington DC area are also suffering through a domino economic slowdown effect.  I hope these senators all enjoyed their five-day vacation while others waited...and waited...for their return...

But this article isn't just about the Senate's leisurely vacation in the middle of this crisis. I have watched C-Span2, which is the TV channel broadcasting live floor proceedings of the United States Senate, since 2001.  And it never fails to confound me that, in the middle of the extreme competition out there in media land for air time to express various viewpoints and agendas, most of the time on the Senate floor is spent in "quorum call", which is the empty time when no senators are present to speak.  Daily, hours upon hours are wasted with none of these highly opinionated senators taking advantage of this free exposure on national television to promote their plans for America or to criticize opposing opinions.  But that's just while the Senate is "in session".  Usually they adjourn on Thursdays and don't reconvene until the following Monday afternoon at 3...and that's when there aren't any federal holidays.  I keep hearing Majority Leader Mitch McConnell complaining about the backlog of nominations that need to be voted on, but it appears to me that a lot of this could be remedied if the Senate were open for business like other businesses are...how about Monday through Friday, 9 to 5...with mandatory overtime during busy periods?  And there should be more press scrutiny placed on our senators...just what are they doing behind the scenes, anyway...they sure aren't on the floor speaking...

Taking Short Break from Blog

I'm taking two or three days off from this blog...I'll start it back up in a day or two.  Till then...happy holidays!

Merry Christmas and Blessings

On this day before Christmas I'd like to wish all of you a wonderful Christmas and that your lives are blessed to their fullest.  Health, prosperity and wisdom to you all!

Controlling Party Shuts Down Its Own Government Three Times in Two Years

When Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were each serving as president, they had lengthy periods in which the opposition Republicans were in control of Congress, essentially creating a divided national government.  During both of these administrations, the government underwent temporary shutdowns when agreements could not be reached to fund the government because special conditions were placed for that funding on one side, creating a conflict.  Although this was not something folks in general would welcome, it is still understandable when you consider two opposing political philosophies clashing, each with its own power base in Washington.  But what about now: the Republican Party for the last two years has not had to share its power as it has controlled the Presidency, the Senate, and the House of Representatives.  So will someone please explain to me why it's always the "fault" of the out-of-power Democrats whenever the Republicans get together and decide to shut down the federal government...THREE times now during this brief period? There is now only one thing preventing the ruling party from having complete control over lawmaking, and that is the 60-vote supermajority threshold in the Senate for ending debate (i.e., filibusters) before votes can be held on legislation.  Trump wants Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to arbitrarily do away with that condition and reduce that body to passing legislation on a simple majority vote basis, like they do in the House...effectively ending the opposition party's participation in the legislative process.  The problem with this is twofold: one, some day the Democrats will return to power in the Senate...maybe as soon as two years from now...and it will be they who will be able to ignore Republican objections to their proposed legislation.  And two, in only two weeks the next session of the House will be sworn into office, giving the Democrats majority control there...having a majority-rules Senate would mean nothing to McConnell's Senate Republicans for the next two years since they'll have no corresponding Republican-passed bills from the House of Representatives to consider. But what about the reason for this shutdown going on right now?

I happen to think that we should have something better on the border, and I'm not at all averse to Trump's wall idea, which he is insisting on before he'll agree to fund and reopen the federal government.  But the Democrats, during the previous shutdown, had actually agreed with the president to fund this wall but he backed out at the last minute, demanding more changes in immigration law.  So he's had his chance and he blew it...sounds to me likes it's all just a political game to him, not a matter of national security as it is to me and many of my fellow Americans.  And anyway, with Trump's kowtowing to Russian foreign policy after his unilateral declaration that he will just abandon Syria to them...and let ISIS be free to reorganize and strengthen...I am deeply concerned about his loyalties. Just what does Putin have on him...I wonder if this phony government shutdown is just a Trump tactic to misdirect attention from how he is currently wrecking our foreign policy...

Almost All My Favorite Songs This Year Are From the Past

Usually around this time of year, I'm getting a mental list ready of my favorite songs of the year.  In 2018, though, in spite of me still listening to music, I only have one song belonging to 2018 on my "list", and it's really not on a par with other top songs from previous years: Arcade Fire's Creature Comfort.  I've grown very dissatisfied with the musical programming on my local alternative rock station, WHHZ/100.5 "The Buzz".  They seem more preoccupied sometimes with playing old songs from the nineties than what's currently out there.  And what's currently out there...I'm sad to say...isn't all that great, either.  So instead I've been either listening to one of three classical music stations...two on my phone and one on my car radio...or some of my favorite rock albums of the past.  Among my current "playlist" of songs I listen to regularly are:

The entire Kid A album by Radiohead
I Might Be Wrong by Radiohead
Neon Bible by Arcade Fire
Windowsill by Arcade Fire
Timebomb by Beck
Lazy Eye by Silversun Pickups
I Will Wait by Mumford & Sons
Close to the Edge by Yes
Two-Timing Touch and Broken Bones by The Hives
Darkness by The Police
Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head by Sufjan Stevens
Blackstar by David Bowie
Love is a Place by Metric
Destination Unknown by Missing Persons
Get It Right Next Time by Gerry Rafferty
M-M-M-M by Crash Test Dummies
Flint by Sufjan Stevens
Niagara Falls by Sufjan Stevens
Us by Regina Spektor
The Light by Regina Spektor
Switchblade Smiles by Kasabian
...and, of course, Creature Comfort by Arcade Fire

I'll probably throw together a list of my favorite songs for 2018 in a week or two, but as nearly all of them will be from the above list, they definitely won't be my favorite songs from 2018...

Quote of the Week...from Ralph Waldo Emerson

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.                                        ---Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a famous nineteenth century American philosopher and poet who championed the ideal of individualism.  For someone as myself who generally conforms to society's standards for conduct without complaint, I nevertheless also find myself continually put under pressure by others to speak and make decisions that conform with their agendas for me and not how I would act according to my own values and purposes.  I recognize that with each of us there is necessarily a tug of war going on between how we want to individually live our lives and how others want us to live out our sole chance at life on Earth...unless of course they happen to believe in reincarnation.  My philosophy has always been to respect the personal decisions of people around me concerning their own lives as long as they do not trample on the rights of others or mine.  But there are some people in this world, sad to say, who are incapable of leaving well enough alone and who seem to regard me as some kind of project...or worse an object...that they are entitled to hound and pressure into conforming to what they deem to be "good enough".  They are incapable of processing my expressed respect of them as being anything other than a sign of my own weakness, which they are only to eager to exploit.  But that's the world for you...only problem is that some folks, especially the real religious ones, who claim to be not conforming to this world, are actually some of the most worldly in this regard.  To associate with them entails never quite being accepted for oneself...there's always something else I have to do to gain their "approval".  Only one problem: I couldn't care less...and never did...whether they approve of me or not, and I never will, seeing them for what they are...

Just Finished Reading Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie

Fantasy writer Joe Abercrombie came up with a winner when he produced his First Law trilogy.  Not only is the premise original, but the characters are so intense and unforgettable that after it's all over, you want him to continue on writing about them.  When I just finished reading book #3, titled Last Argument of Kings, that's just the conclusion I reached. If you want archetypally noble and upstanding protagonists and dastardly, purely evil villains in your fiction, I urge you to move on...the main characters here (the "good" guys) are an inquisitional torturer (Glokta), a brutal, murdering Viking-type warrior (Logen), and a vain, immature nobleman (Jezal).  Yet, especially with Glokta, whose private thoughts Abercrombie shrewdly inserts into every interaction he has with others and reveals a humanity even this abject figure shares with us, they each have their own struggles with their conscience and desire to make things better...or at least survive to another day.  The violence in this series is extreme, lots of mauling and killing, so if you're "kind of " squeamish I "kind of" don't recommend it!  After Last Argument of Kings came out in 2008, the author wrote several related short stories and three standalone novels, each one taking place in the years following the trilogy's timeframe...I plan to read the novels, as well as a spinoff trilogy that he is reportedly working on.  I can't go into much detail about what happens in Last Argument of Kings because I don't want to spoil the series for potential readers...even describing events at its beginning would reveal too much about the endings of books #1 and #2.  I'll just say that if you like fantasy fiction and are tired of excess derivation crossing over from one author's series into another's, then The First Law just might be for you...it's now definitely near the top of my fantasy favorites...

Weekly Short Stories: 1941 Sci-Fi, Part 2

I continued my reading of old science fiction short stories from the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 3 (1941), which I first read through a few years ago.  Unlike other "best of" anthologies that are year-to-year reviews of the preceding year's stories, this retrospective book series, which starts with stories from 1939 and ends with 1963, was published from the late 1970s through the early 90s...when Asimov died of kidney failure in 1992 it came to a halt.  So the selections in these volumes have lasted and even grown in appeal through time...although in 2018 we're moving further and further away "into the future".  Here are three tales from the 1941 book...

MICROCOSMIC GOD by Theodore Sturgeon
It is at some point into the not-so-distant future and there are two extraordinary men who hold the world's fate in the balance: an unscrupulous, greedy and megalomaniacal banker and an inventive genius who keeps supplying said banker with innovations, for which he becomes rich and more powerful.  In return Conant, the banker, protects the privacy of the scientist inventor Kidder, who resides on an island that he now owns where he conducts his research in seclusion.  But Kidder never reveals to Conant the source of his inspiration: a highly-evolved form of social intelligent life, small in scale and vastly sped up with their metabolism, that he has created and trained to obey his commands as one would a deity. If there's the need for a new invention of a particular kind, he passes it on to his "Neoterics" and in a few of their generations...a few days in normal time...they've come up with the answer.  But power-hungry people are never satisfied and Conant one day decides to prod Kidder for a new item, this one precipitating a crisis that leads to the story's climax.  Sturgeon was one of the best writers of this era and he came through again with an excellent tale...

JAY SCORE by Eric Frank Russell
This is another of those old science fiction stories that erroneously presuppose Venus to be hospitable to life...a spaceship is transporting aspiring agriculturists who see settling there as a very lucrative venture.  On board is a new emergency pilot, named Jay Score...as well as your typical Earthling people and some chess-savvy Martians, tentacles and all.  All is proceeding normally until a small meteor punches a hole in the ship, knocking it off course and out of control, straight toward the sun.  Well, the name of this story says that it's about Jay Score, and this character steps up in a major way in the middle of this disaster.  What happens at the end...and who exactly is Jay Score anyway...are things I'll leave you to discover should you want to read it sometime.

LIAR! by Isaac Asimov
Early on in his writing career (and throughout, actually) Isaac Asimov loved to write stories about robots...he was only 20 when he wrote Liar!  For his robot scenario of the future, he had devised the Three Laws of Robotics, the first of them being that "a robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow him to come to harm".  Now picture the setting of a robot manufacturing plant where they've just discovered they inadvertently made a robot that can read people's minds.  Herbie's subsequent strange conversations with some of the plant's staff infuriate each of them (remember the title)...but it all makes sense at the end.  Pretty funny story...

More from 1941 in the world of short science fiction next week...

Just Finished Reading The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks is the author of many novels, the Shannara series being his most renowned accomplishment. Volume one, titled The Sword of Shannara, was published in 1977 with respected science fiction author Lester Del Rey serving as the guiding editor for Brooks, who was writing his first novel. A co-worker of mine had earlier recommended it to me: well, Margaret, the deed is done...I've just read it! And now, here are my reactions...

There is no mistaking the obvious fact that Brooks was deeply inspired and influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings saga...the characters, their circumstances, the presence of a special, coveted talisman, and the development of the story all displayed an enormous degree of derivation and little of an original nature, sad to say. It reminded me of Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance (Eragon) series in much the same way. That having been said, Brooks did bring his own narrative style to the story, which differed a bit from Tolkien’s and is his saving grace. Unfortunately, for the many people who never read Lord of the Rings but only saw the movie version, the lack of originality will probably be accentuated. Shea...half-elf and half-man...corresponds to Tolkien’s Frodo, his “brother” Flick to Samwise Gamgee, the Druid Allanon to the Wizard Gandalf, Broma to Sauron, Orl Fane to Gollum, and so on. In both series the unlikely hero finds his life in peril as he is the target of dark agents (in Shannara it’s the winged Skull Bearers). Allanon gives him instructions as to who to meet up with and where to go...he also presents him with three elfstones, which will respond to him in time of great need. Shea’s quest is to find within the city of Paranor the fabled Sword of Shannara, which only he will be able to wield and use to destroy the evil Broma, now known as the Warlock Lord. Along Flick and Shea’s journey quest they join forces with other allies: Balinor, the prince of a strategic kingdom, two elves, a dwarf, and Menion Leah, a local nobleman whose character I most identified with. There are dangers and crises, and not everyone is going to come out of the struggle alive. The book’s climax centers around two separate but intertwining narratives: Shea’s quest to obtain the Sword of Shannara and Balinor’s defense of his captial city from the Warlock Lord’s armies. How does it turn out? Well, I’m not gonna spoil it for you, but just a hint: this was only book number one!

Once I got past the bothersome similarities between this book and Lord of the Rings, I was able to begin to better appreciate the individual characters and the different nuances to The Sword of Shannara. One glaring difference between this series and Tolkien’s is that Shea’s world appears to be that of Earth in the far distant future after a planet-wide, cataclysmic war...and the designations of elves, dwarves, trolls, gnomes and Druids seem to have been applied from earlier myths to describe the very divergent types of beings arising from the ashes of the calamity. There is a tension going on here between historic forces promoting the advancement of science and those pushing for the domination of magic. Which will win out? Guess I’ll have to keep reading on. I appreciated Terry Brooks for not overloading me with characters and technical details...especially about the magic, something I wish that other fantasy writers had been more disciplined about. And his characters ring true as believable people...I want to continue and see where all this takes them. So, in spite of the story and characters being a little too close for my comfort to Lord of the Rings, I liked The Sword of Shannara and plan to soon begin the next book, titled The Elfstones of Shannara, which I am optimistically hoping will steer toward a narrative that is more original and less derivative...

About Trump, the Investigations, and Impeachment

I have been deliberately holding back on writing about the investigations going on surrounding Donald Trump and his associates, past and present.  The main reason is that I would be writing largely out of ignorance.  I happen to dislike this president on a scale far beyond any previous holder of that office, and I imagine I'm not the only one who feels this way.  But I resisted the impulse to demand his impeachment...as some have even to the point of calling for it before he was sworn into office.  As long as the special prosecutor, Robert Mueller, is not obstructed by Trump, I am content to sit back and let the process unfold.  But now I think a couple of comments are in order...

My overriding concern about Trump and the 2016 campaign is whether or not he conspired with the Russian regime under Vladimir Putin...either because of blackmail, business, or other reasons...to illegally sabotage the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton's campaign through the hacking and theft of e-mails and other activities.  That's something that Mueller has been working on and which, after he's finished, I'd like to see before making any open judgments about Donald Trump (although I have some strong suspicions in that regard).  Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, is in the spotlight for his role in paying off his client's former extramarital girlfriends, one a stripper and the other a Playboy playmate.  The tactic that prosecutors are taking in this case is that the payoffs represented campaign contributions in that they came just before the 2016 election.  But I argue, that's the reason these two women came forward at that time demanding money: their affairs with Trump had occurred many years earlier!  To me this smacks, not of illegally unreported campaign contributions with Trump as the perpetrator, but rather of criminal extortion with Trump as the victim...I heard a conservative talk show host the other night affirm these very thoughts.  So why isn't somebody investigating that?  And, ultimately, what does any of this have to do with Russia, anyway...other than that Cohen may be an important link in that investigation?

The other comment I'd like to make is about impeachment.  When Richard Nixon was undergoing the impeachment process the Democrats controlled the Senate, which is the body of Congress that holds impeachment trials, 57-43.  And many Republicans in that body, unlike today's Senate, were liberal...some of them more so than many Democrats.  When the "Smoking Gun" tape came out in 1974, Nixon weighed his prospects and resigned from office before an impeachment trial could commence.  When Bill Clinton was tried by the Senate 25 years later, the opposition Republicans controlled that body but could not convict...after all, they would have needed 67 out of the 100 senators to remove him from office.  Now we see an incoming Senate that is 53-47 in favor of the president's party, and the Republicans here are much more conservative and docile to their own party leadership than either during the Nixon or Clinton crises.  Should the incoming Democrat-controlled House of Representatives at some time vote for impeachment, I strongly doubt that the Senate under Mitch McConnell would lift as much as a finger to proceed with a trial.  No, if you want Trump out you're going to have to do it the old-fashioned way: get off your butts and VOTE, for a change!

Miami Dolphins Trying to Make Playoffs in '18

I've been following the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League since 1968, when they were still in the American Football League, in just their third year of existence.  This is a franchise that enjoyed a quick rise to glory, winning Super Bowl championships after the 1972 and 1973 seasons and going undefeated throughout the regular season and playoffs in 1972.  Since then, though, they've gone through two phases: from 1974 through 2003, under coaches Don Shula, Jimmy Johnson, and Dave Wannstedt, they only made it to two more Super Bowls, losing them both...yet generally fielded good teams over this long span, experiencing only two losing seasons.  From 2004 onward, though, it's been a different story as the Dolphins have usually struggled to avoid losing seasons.  During the previous 14 seasons they only made the playoffs twice...bowing out early in both games...and came way too close to going winless in 2007, saved by a fortunate win over Baltimore late in that season.  Last year their starting quarterback, the competent but unspectacular Ryan Tannehill, was injured for the year and they finished 6-10.  In 2018 they had a great beginning but went into a mid-season slide...now, after a "miraculous" desperation last play victory over New England, Miami is 7-6 and thick in the playoff hunt.  Today, though, they are playing on the road at Minnesota, which is heavily favored to win the game.  So effectively the Dolphins' playoff season has already begun and they need to keep winning to be awarded a postseason wild card slot.  Will they accomplish this?  Who knows, they have been very inconsistent so far, yet this team seems promising to me and can play with anyone in the league when they are in their top form.  Unfortunately, you never know which Miami Dolphins squad is going to show up on game day, something that I tend to blame the coaching for, particularly head coach Adam Gase…

******
Later, after the game: Dolphins didn't show up, got blown out 41-17.  So what's new...and why should I continue to follow a team whose owner and management act as if they don't care whether they win or lose?  I'm not very demanding...I just want to see them play consistently and competitively, at the level of their abilities, from week to week...

Looking at Politics, Issue By Issue

Life would be a lot simpler for me if I followed the example of millions of my fellow Americans who joyfully and dutifully march in lockstep with their own political parties, passionately adopting all of the party positions on the issues...even those that, given a little thought, might not be in the best interests of either the country or themselves personally. Yes, many folks can’t wait to turn their radio on to Rush Limbaugh or Michael Savage...or eagerly anticipate what FoxNews will tell them to think through their idol Sean Hannity. That’s just on the political right...on the left we have MSNBC and their cast of opinion makers like Lawrence O’Donnell and Rachel Maddow, each of them looking through the TV “at” the viewer with a look that says I know you’ll believe anything I tell you, you’re one of us. And CNN, while pretending to be unbiased, sometimes has the most biased presentation of the issues, with the moderator usually eager to jump into the fray with his or her presumptions. My political philosophy has me usually landing on the side of the Democrats, but that doesn’t mean that they are always correct on the issues, in my opinion. So it grieves me at times to side with President Trump on border security and national defense while I know that he ultimately isn’t temperamentally or morally suited for such a position of responsibility and authority. Yet my own party’s leaders would go against steps that I feel we need to take to ensure our national security, so it can get to be trying hearing people who are all on one side or the other, usually delivering their viewpoints in a very harsh, judgmental, and personal manner directed at the “bad guys” and those who support them. The way I see it, if you’re a thinking person you’ll have varying views on issues, most of which will probably resonate with your general political alignment and a few of which won’t. It isn’t our responsibility to conform ourselves to the positions of our respective political parties, but rather their responsibility to accommodate and not summarily dismiss ours...

Quote of the Week...from Stephen Hawking

Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.                         ---Stephen Hawking

While I'm a big advocate for star-gazing, having learned the constellations when I was seven back in 1964, I don't think the above quote by the late astrophysicist Stephen Hawking is necessarily literal in its intended application.  No, what I think he meant by it is that we need to turn our attention out and away from ourselves and toward our universe in its many manifestations and dimensions.  Dr. Hawking no doubt would have endorsed observing and studying our solar system and the stars beyond, but looking outside oneself can be as simple as flicking on the TV and attentively watching a football game, admittedly an activity that won't lead to striking revelations about the nature of the cosmos.  When I am in conversation with people imprisoned by their own narcissism, it is difficult for them to engage with me on any topic that does not directly personally relate to themselves.  These folks are stuck in an endless cycle of mental tape-playing and insecurity about their place in the world, with relatively little interest or curiosity in that world itself...unless it happens to directly feed into their own self-centered narratives.  I am no psychologist or medical doctor, but I believe that there are often strong physical, medical components to mental illness.  Many times, though, these are only predisposing factors and that one's one philosophy and how they direct their thoughts...in other words, people's own choices...can make the final difference between effectively functioning and even enjoying life and suffering from debilitating insecurity, resentment, and regrets.  I've always enjoyed a natural curiosity about what's around me and like to study things on their own merits without always being concerned about their application to my personal standing in the world.  I believe this attitude has served me well in counteracting my own tendency to often be a bit too introspective, or as Hawking put it, looking down at my feet.  With so many things to be curious about, how can anyone be bored...unless, of course, they can only think about themselves...

Just Finished Reading A River in the Sky by Elizabeth Peters

Elizabeth Peters, I found out after discovering that the book I checked out of the library is part of the twenty-volume Amelia Peabody archaeology mystery series attributed to her, is the pseudonym of the late Barbara Mertz, described as an Egyptologist.  It's helpful, I guess, to write fiction that conveniently focuses on the very area in which you have specialized and already have a great deal of background knowledge...saves a bit on the research time and expense.  This series centers around the English Egyptologist couple of Amelia Peabody and her husband Radcliffe Emerson...the two always refer to one another as "Peabody" and "Emerson".  Although most of the stories naturally take place in Egypt...starting in the late nineteenth century and eventually progressing into World War I of the early twentieth...the book I read, A River in the Sky, transpires around 1910 with the setting first being England and then the Holy Land, more specifically Jerusalem and Samaria, then still a part of the Ottoman Empire.  There is great pre-war international intrigue going on between England, Germany, the Ottoman Turks, and other parties...including Arab and Jewish independence movements in the Middle East.  Peabody and Emerson find themselves pulled into the tempest as their son Ramses disappears in the area and they have their own task in pursuing another archaeologist who seems to be a German agent and who is digging for something that might possibly alter the balance of power.  What is this object and what happened to Ramses? There are other characters as well, including a couple of very smart villains, but you'd probably be better off reading this book for yourself and enjoying the flow of the story.  I learned a bit about early twentieth-century history in Palestine and laughed at wily, headstrong Peabody and cantankerous Emerson argue with each other and pretty much bully their way over everyone else unfortunate to be in their way.  These characters made me want to go back and start at the series from its beginning: I give it a big "thumbs up"...

Weekly Short Stories: 1941 Sci-Fi, Part 1

I've just begun going over the science fiction anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 3 (1941).  This series, which covers short science fiction spanning from 1939 through 1963, has some very interesting commentary, both in the preface and before each story, by editors Isaac Asimov...himself a renowned sci-fi writer...and Martin H. Greenberg.  Used copies of the series are still available...Amazon probably has them all (as do I). And now I'll discuss the first four tales appearing in the 1941 book...

MECHANICAL MICE by Maurice A. Hugl
Barman, a tinkerer and friend of the narrator, keeps coming up with incredibly innovative inventions.  One day he comes clean and reveals to his buddy that he has only truly invented one thing: a time machine that allows him to see off into the future and, from that vantage point, study future technology and copy it back in the present.  This is all well and good for his "inventions" that serve a discernible function, but his last one, which he has been working on for a long time, is a box of sorts with complex machinery that he knows nothing about...other than he discovered it off in the distant future and brought its design back.  Eventually, though, the thing turns itself on and insidiously begins its original task...which had Barman been aware of he never would have built it in the first place.  Although Barman's invention may not have been original, this story idea was...alternately funny and very scary...

SHOTTLE BOP by Theordore Sturgeon
I actually reviewed this very story a year ago...you can read it by clicking on the following link: [Shottle Bop]. Sturgeon was an excellent science fiction short story writer and he was responsible for the horror tale It from the 1940 anthology.  When I think of the hoodlum character who narrated Shottle Bop, I'm reminded of that unforgettable narrator and character Henry Hill from the movie Goodfellas, played by vodka-drinking and cigarette-quitting actor Ray Liotta.  And I loved that annoying, insulting shopkeeper...

THE ROCKET OF 1955 by Cyril Kornbluth
Kornbluth was a promising young science fiction writer who penned this story in his teens.  Sadly, he had a heart condition early on and died at age 35 one day in 1958 while shoveling snow after a storm.  The Rocket of 1955 is the ultimate space hoax...maybe moon hoax believer Stephen Curry should read it between basketball games.  It's also one of the shortest short stories in the entire series...very intense and to the point!

EVOLUTION'S END by Robert Arthur
Back when I was in the tenth grade in high school, I wrote a short story for my English class that I thought I was being very original with...it involved a view that human history was cyclic in nature and that there was a real, historical basis for the creation myth.  Since then I've come across three other stories, including a Twilight Zone episode and this one by Robert Arthur, that have used the exact same idea.  Still, I was interested in this tale's characters...always a sign of good writing...that is, until I began to analyze the different names.  Then I suddenly realized what the author was up to and I sighed to myself in disappointment. Robert Arthur, through the super-brainy character Master Dmu Dran, discusses the nature of evolution and comes up with some interesting perspectives.  Worth looking into...

Next week: more short science fiction from 1941.  By the way, these stories are so old that there's a good chance some of them are now in the public domain and available to read on the Internet...copying and pasting story titles into a search engine might produce good results...

Some Places We Visited in Washington, D.C. in October

The other night I was watching C-Span as they replayed the laying in state of the body of President George H.W. Bush in the Capitol Rotunda.  Having just visited there for the first time six weeks ago, it was interesting seeing all these famous public figures gathered in the same room I was just standing in. As a matter of fact, whenever I now see on TV anything concerning Washington D.C. I try to discern exactly what it is they're depicting...this is especially true for the news networks like CNN as they often present a live background of some part of the city, usually around the Capitol building or the White House.  Our brief visit there just wasn't enough to explore the many sights and attractions...aside from the Capitol, we did take that nighttime open-air bus tour and, on the last full day, explored two museums and a garden along Independence Avenue west of the Capitol.  At the close of our earlier Capitol visit late in the afternoon, Melissa noticed there was a tunnel linking it to the Library of Congress across the street...but the workers there were closing the doors for the day.  We rushed over and just got in, quickly walking down the tunnel while the "closer" kept ushering us and other lagging tourists onward.  I'm glad we got in: the Library of Congress is not only is a famous repository of books, but it is also a great historical museum...we strolled the exhibits, many of which displayed original copies of centuries-old literature describing the exploration and settlement of the New World.  That's a place I'd like to revisit to explore further...unfortunately, at the time I was experiencing a horrific toothache that interfered with my enjoyment of the library but not my appreciation of it.  I got that toothache taken care of the next morning with a root canal at a dentist only a short walking distance from our hotel...I was somehow able to dissociate the chronic pain from our touring, a talent that I had believed only Mister Spock of Star Trek fame possessed...

We naturally missed most of the many Smithsonian museums in town, but did manage to tour through the two nearest ones to our hotel, lying adjacent to one another on Independence Avenue: the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Air and Space Museum.  Both were interesting, although I was surprised to be more drawn to the one about the American Indian...that's another place that merits a return visit.  One funny experience was at lunchtime at their cafeteria, with different stations offering native cuisine from different areas in the Western Hemisphere.  The longest line of customers by far was at the Plains counter, where they were gung ho on serving beef: plate after plate I saw featured cheeseburgers and fries!  The Air and Space Museum had a series of terrific exhibits about the history of aviation, in particular the planes used by both sides in World War I & II, with some of them on display within this gigantic building.  I thought the "space" part of the museum well-exhibited, too, although it saddened me that there was very, very, little to see of what we've been doing lately in space...hopefully with the projects to send people to Mars in the near future, this will all change...

Before visiting those two Smithsonian museums on Friday, Melissa and I strolled through the United States Botanic Garden, which featured plants from all over the world, many of them responsible for producing the food and drink we consume.  I'm sadly a near-complete ignoramus when it comes to botany, but I was intrigued by what I saw there...I especially liked all of those weird types of cacti.  The photo I inserted at the beginning is of a section in this garden...

No doubt about it: I liked Washington, D.C., even if all the politicians I might have recognized were out of town at the time of our visit.  I also liked their terrific underground transit system, the Metro, and noticed that they also have a very good 24/7 bus system...a most pedestrian-friendly city!  I think the next time I visit I'd like to try out some areas north of the Mall, including some of this city's recommended eating places...oh, and I think I'd like to jog the perimeter of the Mall as well...

Just Finished Reading The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman & The Racketeer by John Grisham

Seeing how Neil Gaiman and John Grisham have become two of my favorite authors, it's not surprising that I'd read a couple more of their books, finishing them at the same time...

Gaiman's 2008 young adult novel The Graveyard Book, as you might infer from its title, has some pretty sinister overtones to it: in the opening scene at a rural English town, an assassin with a knife kills an infant's parents and sister at night in their house.  Turning to his room, the evil Man Jack discovers the baby's crib to be empty...he's crawled away and is heading to the nearby graveyard.  There the Owens take him in and hide him from the murderer...only problem is that they're ghosts!  The community of ghosts haunting that place decide to bring up young Nobody Owens, as he is renamed, under the Owens' care.  A protective and reformed vampire named Silas brings in food and supplies from the outside world...and sets out to combat the terrible organization that sent the Man Jack to perform his dastardly deed.  The story introduces some very memorable characters as Bod (short for Nobody) grows up there, and it builds up the suspense very well...I'll let you, the potential reader of this relatively short book, read it for yourself to see what happens.  I liked it, although for some reason my mind kept playing the old song Monster Mash in the background while I was reading it...

John Grisham's The Racketeer came out in 2012 and is initially set in Virginia where a young African American lawyer, innocent of any crime, is nevertheless swept away by the Feds in a vast racketeering case, convicted, and sentenced to federal prison for ten years...effectively ruining his marriage and professional life.  But Malcom Bannister has a card up his sleeve he can play, and does: Rule 35, which allows for a convict to get out of jail free if he or she can successfully solve another crime for the FBI. He names a supposedly good friend of his he earlier met in prison, Quinn Rucker, as the recent murderer of a corrupt judge and the suspect is arrested and indicted.  Bannister gets put under the witness protection program and has his name and appearance changed, but Rucker's vengeful friends seem to able to track him anyway.  At this point in the story, Bannister's behavior struck me as being both abhorrently calloused and careless, and I began to lose interest in finishing it.  Which goes to show that with a good author like John Grisham you never know what tricks he has in store for the reader, as The Racketeer's ending explained it all and put an entirely different perspective on Bannister, Rucker and their respective plights.  Turns out this was one of Grisham's best stories!

Sometimes I get into the bad habit of reading several novels at the same time, and that's going on right now.  I'm finishing up Elizabeth Peters' archaeology mystery A River in the Sky and Joe Abercrombie's Last Argument of Kings.  I've also begun The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.  And, of course, I'm reading through old science fiction short stories as well.  With so much on my plate, I'd better get back to the books...