Game of Thrones and Avengers: Endgame: To Spoil or Not to Spoil

There are two series, one on television and the other on the big screen, that have closed out just recently with their final episodes: Games of Thrones and Avengers.  I haven't followed either...I only saw Iron Man, featuring Robert Downey, Jr. as the eventual Avengers superhero, and managed to see part of one of the Thrones episodes when I happened to get a free sneak preview of HBO, the series that carries it, on my cable service.  But I have read author George R.R. Martin's The Song of Ice and Fire, on which Game of Thrones is based, all the way through the latest and fifth book and have for several years awaited the next installment.  Incredibly, Martin assented to allow the HBO series to continue all the way to the conclusion, with different characters dying out and others rising to the ascendancy...none of which he has yet revealed in his book series. Now I'm determined to boycott any more books by this author, series-related or not: that's NOT how to treat your loyal reading base, dude!

Since I'm washing my hands of Martin's fantasy series, I don't suppose then that it should matter how the television Games of Thrones ends, but I still find it pretty disconcerting to be exposed to all the plot spoilers that have spontaneously appeared on social media and even from sources that should know better than to reveal things which others are waiting to discover for themselves.  Contrast this with the Avengers final movie Endgame, for which there seemed to be a near-universal agreement among fans not to divulge how it ended.  Yet with Game of Thrones I hear...without asking for it...how many parents had named their daughters Daenerys and now are going to have to live with that decision.  Or how Taylor Swift, judged by an popular magazine to be one of the "100 most influential people in the world", has been greatly influenced by Arya Stark.  Here is where fiction gets a little muddy...which is more surreal: Taylor Swift being influential on any level or fictional character Arya Stark's reality to her? In any event, fans of this series are getting themselves all knotted up over the different characters and that final episode...to them I say: get a life, or at least some semblance thereof, until you can get yourselves hooked on the next fad HBO series.  And by the way, believe it or not, not everyone on Earth is necessarily following the same crap you're so engrossed in...

Disappointed With Current Alternative Music "Hits"

I've expressed before on this blog that my popular music tastes tend to focus on alternative/indie rock, which in the past has produced many memorable songs and brought my attention to several talented, inspired acts.  Of late, however, I have noticed that the most popular alternative hits are insipid songs that musically display little creativity.  Instead, the performers seem like they are competing on those TV reality talent shows I avoid like the plague and which are so popular in this era.  It hasn't always been like this...as a matter of fact, I didn't notice the change within the genre until around three years ago.  The other day I was listening to Google Play's Alternative Hotlist, which plays the current rotation of chart-toppers in alternative music...and after an hour of wincing and grimacing finally gave up and switched to one of their artist-oriented channels.  You see, if you want to hear music of the general type of a particular act you like, you just enter the act's name and their algorithm will create a station around it.  I chose Radiohead, and found myself sighing with relief as one song after another was played that resonated with me.  Unfortunately, almost all of them were songs from the past...is anybody coming out with anything interesting these days?  I have to search high and low for a current song that doesn't bore me to tears...

About Yesterday's Preakness and the Riderless Horse

After yesterday's Preakness Stakes race at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, my main reaction was totally unexpected...and it regarded the last-place horse, Bodexpress.  At the race's beginning, Bodexpress threw off its rider John Velazquez...and most everyone around expected the horse to simply trot off to the side, slow down, and be diverted off the track.  Instead, Bodexpress decided to hang with the rest of the horses racing and stayed in the middle-back of the pack, only fading at the very end to last place.  Of course, not having a jockey's weight on top of you can help you immensely with how fast you want to go, but I think that Bodexpress was simply reverting to his horse instincts of running along with the herd.  It also became apparent to me that had this horse actually wanted to win the race, he could easily have done so...making me conclude that it's the rider's professional duty to instill that unnatural winning urge within the horse being ridden, even if it takes some cruel-looking whipping to accomplish this.  Of course, had Bodexpress managed to finish first it wouldn't have counted since there are strict weight amounts each horse must carry...

War of Will, who was interfered with at the crucial point in the Kentucky Derby by Maximum Security, causing the latter's disqualification but no redress for the former's misfortune, hugged the inner rail throughout the Preakness and pushed on through at the end to win it.  The favorite, Improbable, finished in the middle of the pack and was never a factor in the outcome...just before the race I found out that jockey Mike Smith had never ridden Improbable and was thus at a big disadvantage...especially since this horse had a reputation for getting very skittish at the starting gate (which it was once again).  Now for the Belmont Stakes, the Third Jewel in this year's already divided-up Triple Crown.  I hope War of Will runs in it, and I have a further suggestion: load up Bodexpress with the same weight the other horses have and run him without a jockey!  Probably not going to happen, though...the jockeys' union would most definitely file a grievance...

Preakness Today, With Only Four from Kentucky Derby

Sports writer Neil Greenberg, in his May 15 article for the Washington Post, mentioned that with today's Preakness Stakes at Pimlico race track in Baltimore, Maryland, it will be the first time in 23 years that the Kentucky Derby winner did not participate in the second jewel of horse racing's Triple Crown...and the first time in 68 years that none of the top three finishers in that first race competed in the Preakness.  Add to that the fact that the first horse to cross the finish line in the Derby, Maximum Security...disqualified from a foul due to the Kentucky Racing Commission's postrace inquiry...will not be running today, either.  The result is a large-but-depleted field of thirteen in the Preakness, with only four horses who ran in the Kentucky Derby scheduled to run...

Improbable, one of successful trainer Bob Baffert's horses and who officially finished fourth in the Kentucky Derby, is the early favorite to win the Preakness.  Mike Smith, who rode Justify (another Baffert thoroughbred) to Triple Crown glory last year, will be Improbable's jockey.  War of Will, with the number one post position in this shortest of the Triple Crown races, was the horse involved in the foul that disqualified Maximum Security and is given favorable odds as well.  I'm not seeing anything standing out to me from the other eleven horses, so I'm just going to look at these two...besides, how can you miss with Bob Baffert and Mike Smith on the same team?

The projected post time for the Preakness today is 6:48 pm and the preliminary weather forecasts show a slight chance of rain, but nothing like the precipitation that thoroughly muddied the Kentucky Derby track two weeks ago.  NBC-Sports (Gainesville Cox Channel 33) will show pre-race analysis and hype from 2 to 5 pm, and from 5 on the regular NBC channel will pick up the programming.  I'm planning to watch the race, but not the hype...

Quote of the Week...from Albert Einstein

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.            ---Albert Einstein.

Can we all agree that Albert Einstein, the author of the incredibly complex and paradigm-shifting General Theory of Relativity, was a genius?  And that a lot of the folks we see around us (not our own selves, naturally) seem pretty stupid? Well, that usage of "genius" and "stupidity" isn't what the groundbreaking physicist had in mind, in my opinion.  Rather I think he was making a profound point: each of us has our "genius" moments and our "stupid" stretches, whether we're deemed to be smart or not.  That's certainly true for me as I look back on my life.  My "Eureka!" experiences pale in significance and scale compared to all of the dunderhead blunders I've committed...yet there's something almost divine or supernatural during those rare instances when everything seems to come together into focus and a new, foundational idea or principle occurs to me.  I've noticed this probably the most in the past during my usually frustrating experiences in school, especially during different math classes in which the teacher would stand at the front of the students presenting the material and suddenly, out of the blue, I would "get it".  Like Einstein, I was generally a mediocre-to-average math student (although I consistently scored high in it on the various standardized tests we students were subjected to) ...and I'm not too happy with the quality level of teaching I was dealt in school regarding this field.  But I digress...

Sometimes a genius moment doesn't involve understanding or creating a complex idea...it can be the opposite when I figure out how to simplify things to a level that makes my life more manageable.  Being a person of routine, I am looking for ways to integrate the various things I want to accomplish within the framework of a day or week...not abstract physics, but still something that involves the management of chaos, to a degree.  And that's where I think most of the genius of humanity is expressed: not in great works of art, music, literature, engineering, or science, but rather in the multitude of adjustments, discoveries, and innovations people make in their daily lives, ingenious little things that generally go unnoticed by the rest of the world. Yet I sadly acknowledge that, in the midst of all this good stuff, the stupidity I see in that world seems limitless...   

Just Finished Reading Fear by Bob Woodward

Renowned investigative journalist Bob Woodward, who in 1973 collaborated with his Washington Post colleague Carl Bernstein to uncover the Nixon administration's Watergate scandal, came out last year with a new book: Fear.  It portrays Donald Trump, both on the campaign trail and in a little more than the first year of his presidency, from the experiences of people working for and with him over that period.  Woodward claims to have interviewed hundreds and employed strict journalism standards with this project.  When it first came out last September, the main things that were publicized were critical of Trump, with examples of his aides and cabinet members regularly insulting him behind his back while surreptitiously undercutting his authority in light of what they regarded as his impulsive and harmful decisions.  The President's backers...as well as Donald Trump himself...predictably panned Fear while his detractors jumped on the most scurrilous passages to point out Trump's unfitness for this high office.  My reactions?

Fear is generally presented in a chronological fashion, touching upon the different events in the Trump campaign, the transition period, and his early presidency as different people floated in and out of close association with him.  The way Woodward paints it, Steve Bannon of Breitbart was crucial in keeping Trump's campaign on track during crisis moments when others were throwing in the towel, as well as encouraging him to stick with the promises he made to his political base after taking office.  Eventually Bannon would go his own way and leave the administration, which turned into a massive revolving door for staff and cabinet.  Trump, not a reader and possessing a very short attention span, would not even stay attentive beyond a few minutes to those briefing him on various important issues, and would often agree with his advisors on a particular issue only to Tweet a completely different policy soon thereafter...Senator Chuck Schumer characterized this trait of his as like "negotiating with Jell-O". Trump also demanded complete loyalty from everyone around him while showing little in return.  And the capper was that he was a compulsive liar, saying whatever he thought fit the moment regardless whether it was true or not...this trait of his convinced his then-personal attorney John M. Dowd to strongly urge him not to allow independent counsel Robert Mueller to interview him.  Dowd was convinced...and I believe confirmed in his belief...that Mueller did not have evidence in his Russian investigation to charge Trump with either conspiracy or obstruction, and that his main motive was to trap the President on perjury.  And since he saw Donald Trump as a natural born liar, his attorney knew that Mueller would get him on that...

I recommend Fear, unless of course you've already made up your mind about Donald Trump and won't allow anything to change your narrative.  It tends, in my opinion, to exonerate him from the Russian controversy and explain his suspicious behavior in that area in terms of just being his own self: an extremely narcissistic, selfish and immature boy-man who never admits to being wrong and who never learned that lying is not a good thing.  His propensity for throwing people under the bus makes me marvel as to why anyone would want to work for him...unless they're masochists, that is.  By the way, the book's title is based on one of Trump's espoused tenets: for leadership to work effectively, an atmosphere of fear must be cultivated...

Weekly Short Stories: 1946 Science Fiction, Part 4

I conclude my look back at 1946, the year following the end of World War II and the explosions of nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as it was reflected in the world of science fiction short story literature.  The retrospective anthology I'm using is Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 6 (1946).  And without further ado, here are my reactions to the final four tales from this book...

EVIDENCE by Isaac Asimov
This story is an example of an author creating his or her own literary universe, with its own history and characters...and then capitalizing on that creation with stories set within it.  Asimov wrote extensively about robots...and roboticist Dr. Susan Calvin.  In Evidence popular opinion has turned strongly against the presence of robots on Earth in spite of the Three Laws of Robotics that ensure goodwill toward humans on the part of all positronic robots.  Stephen Byerley is running for elective office and his opponent, Francis Quinn, strongly suspects him of being a robot...intending to capitalize on the population's strong opposition to them to defeat him.  But how can he prove his accusation?  Dr. Calvin steps in to figure it all out in her own ingenious, sly way...

ABSALOM by Henry Kuttner
A series of generational mutations is progressively creating a superhuman race among a minority of the population.  A father, himself a second-generation mutant, fears that his ten-year-old son Absalom will soon be as mentally superior to him as he was to his own father...and the generational struggle between the two dominates the story.  This is one of those tales where the final line is the most memorable part...

MEWHU'S JET by Theodore Sturgeon
A couple with their toddler daughter are vacationing out in the woods in their cottage when their roof gets ripped off suddenly by a falling object...it turns out to be an alien named Mewhu on his special portable jet device.  This catlike humanoid creature, very intelligent in his own right, quickly befriends them and helps them use the jet to repair the house.  And little Molly seems to have a special rapport with Mewhu...there seems to be something telepathic between them.  Just what kind of civilization does Mewhu represent and how role does he play in it?  The answers are implied toward the story's end...a very sweet little tale about first contact...reminded me a bit of E.T.....

TECHNICAL ERROR by Arthur C. Clarke
A very powerful generator operating on principles of superconductivity is being put into use for the first time.  Engineer Richard Nelson finds himself standing in the wrong place at the wrong time when something goes very wrong during its startup...he comes out unscathed, at least until it becomes revealed that he has become his mirror image...all the way down to his molecular structure.  And that causes a great number of problems as Clarke gives the reader a short lesson not only about the nature of organic chemistry but that the unseen very small determines the ultimate reality of our world and our lives...

Next week I start with the year 1947 in science fiction short stories...

A Little More Political Analysis

The political pundits in the media often point to Donald Trump's consistently low approval ratings as president to make the point that he will have an uphill fight for reelection in 2020...I beg to differ.  True, I'm not the only person who thinks the current occupant of the White House is a reprehensible dictator-wannabe, to say nothing of the fact that there is precious little about this elected leader of our wonderful nation to recommend as a role model for others.  There are plenty of conservatives who thoroughly detest Trump and in a presidential approval poll wouldn't support him...but in an election against a Democratic candidate far to the political left of Trump, they still would go to the polls and vote for him while holding their noses.  And then there are those crossover voters that went for Obama during his 2008 and 2012 elections but opted for Trump because (1) of the candidate's populist and personal message and (2) their overwhelming dislike of Hillary Clinton.  Well, these voters in such crucial swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Florida are still out there and there's no guarantee that the Democrats won't again produce a nominee that turns their stomachs.  So Trump, in my opinion, is in a pretty good spot so far for his reelection.  Now for another political matter...

I know of several friends on Facebook who positively adore Trump (and a few who positively abhor him)...some of these are attracted by his very same personality traits that I find so repulsive and aren't particularly ideological in their politics.  But I know a few who have consistently been conservative in their outlook and I think a lot of these understand that much of what Trump gets as criticism aimed at him and his administration would also be directed at another president, say Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio, had they been elected instead in 2016...and that includes being personally attacked on a daily basis by late night TV hosts like Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers.  I happen to share some views on various issues with these conservatives but find Trump so toxic that I feel the need to back off...I'm convinced that I would not have this problem were a different Republican working in the Oval Office.  So at least for myself, whenever I hear opinion makers on the left personalizing some of their political differences I have to take pause and filter out everything I hear.  On the other side, I am confident that for whomever the Democrats choose to nominate as their candidate, the political right will find all sorts of nasty things to say about them as well.  If you thought the 2016 presidential campaign was bad, then you ain't seen nothing yet: borrowing a little from Guns N' Roses, welcome to the sewer...it gets worse here every day...

Some Sports Comments

Back from the beach, yesterday I caught up with what was going on in sports.  In the National Basketball Association conference semifinals, Portland edged out Denver on the road to win their seven-game series 4-3 and Toronto, with the advantage of playing at home, likewise won their drawn-out series over Philadelphia.  The Raptors broke a 90-90 tie with a long, unbalanced shot by their star Kawhi Leonard as the clock ran out...it was too short and bounced high off the front rim, then bounced back three more times before settling through the basket and bringing down the house.  I was rooting for both the Trail Blazers and Toronto, so it was pretty cool how their games turned out.  I also wanted the ultimately-prevailing Golden State Warriors to win their series against Houston...leaving the Boston Celtics' early exit against Milwaukee as my only disappointment in this round.  In the National Hockey League, their four conference semifinal series ended a few days ago with all "my" teams...Boston, Carolina, San Jose, and St. Louis...winning their respective series.  And now the Bruins and Sharks...both of whom I'd like seeing facing off in the Stanley Cup finals, are leading their ongoing series...

In soccer, Manchester City eked out the English Premier League title over Liverpool, which nevertheless lost only one match out of 38 played...highest second-place finish in history.  Wolverton and Leicester, two teams I was following this year, respectively finished seventh and ninth out of the twenty teams in the league...not bad, especially considering that Wolverton was just promoted from the next lower league just this year.  In Mexico "my" Tigres have passed the first round of their Liguilla playoffs...looks like Leon is the team to beat this time around, though.  And I've lost interest in the other soccer leagues...even Major League Soccer which features a (perennially bad) Orlando club...

In baseball Tampa Bay started out the season fast but seems to be settling down and Miami looks to possibly be even worse than last year, in spite of new CEO Derek Jeter's plans for the franchise.  Defending World Series champions Boston began the season poorly but have surged of late...I expect them to be contenders once again at season's end.  I don't know whether it's because the season is so early or that my tastes in sports have changed, but the baseball games seem pretty boring so far this year...

And that's about how I see it in sports...

Enjoying a Full Day at the Beach

Enjoying a full day at the beach...that's what Melissa and I are doing here today at Daytona Beach.  The hotel we've usually stayed at lately had done some renovation since the last time...instead of a seldom-used section adjacent to the outside swimming pool comprised of little fountains for kids to frolic around, they built a thatched, semi-enclosed tiki bar where guests can munch on light food...or drink to their hearts' content.  No doubt about it, once evening starts to roll around you can notice a little difference in the social climate here, with folks walking around with their beer or mixed drinks and a few clearly in the advanced stages of imbibement, to put it diplomatically.  I was in the swimming pool yesterday and noticed that the bar was loudly playing one country song after another...not exactly what I wanted to hear.  But to allay my concerns, they switched over when I heard Lenny Kravitz's cover of The Guess Who's American Woman.  The weather's been sunny and hot here, although later on they're forecasting some rain here and there...especially tomorrow when we'll be returning home.  We're enjoying the break, and the break continues...

Quote of the Week...from Emelia Wickstead

To escape and sit quietly on the beach---that's my idea of paradise.      ---Emilia Wickstead

You don't have to be someone utterly famous like Emilia Wickstead...you do know you Emilia Wickstead is, right?...to agree with her attraction to the beach.  I'm one of those as well...and by the way, I didn't know who she was until I read her quote.  Melissa and I are going over to Daytona Beach for a couple of days, a destination we've come to almost consider as a second home because of its familiarity.  Unlike Wickstead, who happens to be a successful highbrow fashion designer in London, England, I don't care as much for sitting for the beach as I do standing there facing the ocean, walking along the beach with Melissa, or engaging in one of my beach runs.  I generally don't get out in the water because of undertow/jellyfish/shark concerns, but when I do I enjoy swimming out in the more buoyant saltwater.  We tend to hang more around our hotel pool during our outings...but the ocean just out there creates a great presence that interrupts our lives of routine back home.  I especially like it during and after sunset as the skies darken and the ocean changes its complexion (and the crowds of beachgoers thins), as well as noting the high and low tides on the beach sand.  We'll be heading out there soon, can't wait...

Breezing Through Redacted Mueller Report

I started reading Robert Mueller's redacted report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign and found myself slogging a bit through this 400+ page monstrosity.  And then it happened, gradually at first, as the report made its way toward discussing Russia's role...especially in regard to their Internet Research Agency, the front organization behind several bogus Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter groups that disparaged Hillary Clinton throughout the campaign and promoted Donald Trump.  Suddenly I was breezing through the report, having found myself covering several pages in only a couple of minutes.                                                                                                                            

And besides that,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           . . I recommend to anyone daunted by the length of this report to just take a gander at it through the many news outlets online that provide the full report (with just those "few" redactions) in pdf form that you can scroll down without needing to download.  Here are the five most important things about Russian 2016 interference I've gotten from it so far: 

1.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

2.                                                                                                                            

3.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

4.                            Trump                                                                                                    is                                                                                                                        a                                                                         j                                   er                                               k.

5.The American people are really a bunch of                 s to have fallen for all this      !

In closing, I think that it's extremely urgent that                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               . And that's all I have to say about that...

Weekly Short Stories: 1946 Science Fiction, Part 3

I continued my look back at the year 1946 in the world of short science fiction with reactions to four more works from the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 8 (1946).  Two of them were lengthy, more appropriately deemed as novellas, and one very short.  Here they are...

LORELEI OF THE RED MIST by Ray Bradbury and Leigh Brackett

Here once again is a story based on the notion popularly held years ago that Venus was a swampy, oceanic planet with all sorts of exotic life there.  In this story different native humanoid races are at war with each other...good for fugitive hard-luck criminal Hugh Starke as his escape ship crash-lands there, his consciousness transferred from his dying body to a strong, robust human one, formerly belonging to a warrior named Conan before he lost his mind.  Bad, because the Venusian woman telepathically performing this miracle wants to use the resurrected Conan/Starke to assassinate her opponents.  This is a tale full of intrigue and changing values...the protagonist, once a low-level, career lawbreaker, comes to change his perspective on life as he gets further involved in the Venusian conflict...

THE LAST OBJECTIVE by Paul A. Carter

This story presents a nightmare future scenario for Earth as nuclear wars have rendered the surface uninhabitable, while warfare still continues down beneath as giant drilling warships battle each other...although what they have remaining to fight for, I don't know.  But the urge for destruction continues and religion has been thoroughly banned, replaced by a staff psychologist who pesters and harasses the crew.  A decisive confrontation with an enemy ship looms ahead through the miles of rock...but exactly how decisive the combatants don't know until it's too late...

MEIHEM IN CE KLASRUM by Dolton Edwards

Back in the fifth/sixth grade in my elementary school (~1967) someone came up with the goofball idea of helping kids learn to read better by teaching them to read writing that had been changed to a more phonetic form...which of course only works while they are reading that phonetic writing.  This very short story describes an English language reform effort, made gradually over years with orthographic changes every few years...each change shown in the story's text itself.  Can you guess the title's true name?

VINTAGE SEASON by Lawrence O'Donnell

Lawrence O'Donnell was one of the several pen names used by the married writing team of Henry Kuttner and C.L. (Catherine) Moore.  In Vintage Season Oliver Wilson's home town seems to suddenly be visited by strange people who speak English without contractions, along with other noticeable variations.  They comport themselves differently and seem a little out of place there, exuding an air of confidence if not arrogance.  Oliver has leased his house to three of them, a man and two women.  Originally intending to leave the house for them, he decides to remain out of curiosity.  The visitors behave as tourists sometimes behave when they visit places that they feel culturally superior to, and I'm guessing this may be an underlying reason for this story's existence in the first place.  I wonder how many times Americans or Europeans travel to Third World countries and pity the less economically advantaged people there...well, I doubt that they appreciate that pity and regard it as condescending.  As for Vintage Season, I don't think I'm giving away the story when I say it's about time travel...and quite frankly, I think it's one of the best stories of that type out there...

That's it for this week...next week I'll conclude my examination of some of 1946's best science fiction short stories...

Watched a Bernie Sanders Speech on C-Span This Morning

I was sitting there this morning watching a Bernie Sanders campaign speech in Iowa and came away from it with the conviction that, his faults and past allegiances aside, he is the strongest candidate I'm seeing right now to not only win the Democratic Party nomination for president but also the 2020 general election against Donald Trump.  I say this because Sanders is very transparent about his views on the issues facing us today and makes them the repeating themes in his addresses.  And these speeches, unlike the ones Trump likes to give, are not full of ridicule and personal insults against other individuals.  I have been disappointed with Joe Biden's campaign so far, which he seems determined to have as dominant themes (1) how bad Trump is, (2) what a good guy ol' Joe is who's trying to bring our country together, and (3) how chummy he is with Barack Obama...he's got to come up with more than that as I don't believe he'll be able to coast to the nomination based on eight years as somebody else's vice-president.  Yet Biden has a certain advantage over Sanders, much in the same way that John McCain was able to outflank his Republican rivals in that party's 2008 presidential primary system.  McCain stood out easily then as the most centrist candidate while his opponents split up the more conservative vote among themselves, giving the Arizona senator some spectacular early primary wins that snowballed his impetus to the nomination that year.  For 2020, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is even more heavily split among many candidates besides Bernie Sanders: Beto O'Rourke, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, and others will most likely seriously cut into Sanders' support in the early primaries and caucuses to the benefit of Biden.  So while I expect Sanders to continue gathering support, I wonder whether it will be enough...just the other day House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged the party to nominate someone who will appeal more to the voters in middle America who slipped over to the Trump camp in 2016. That sounds on the surface like she's trying to promote a more centrist nominee...but if so I think she might be misreading the sentiments of those millions of voters, many of whom may be very sympathetic to the often populist appeal of Bernie Sanders' take on the issues as well as being more appreciative of his candor in directly addressing his views about them...

Just Finished Reading City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

City of Glass, published in 2009, is the third installment of Cassandra Clare's six-part young adult fantasy series The Mortal Instruments, involving an alternative universe with angelic demon hunters along with demons, vampires, werewolves, and faeries.  In it the chief protagonists Clary, Jace, and Simon shift the narrative's setting from New York City to the Shadowhunters' homeland of Idris where a final confrontation with the rebellious and evil Valentine looms before them.  Beyond this, discussing anything of detail is certain to spoil the plot, not just for potential readers of this book but also for those anticipating reading the first two books.  So instead I'll opt for discussing how authors treat series when they become popular...

Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series was originally intended as a trilogy, and by the conclusive nature of City of Glass's ending this is self-evident.  However, as the first book was made into a successful motion picture and Clare achieved widespread popularity for this series, she not only decided to expand it into six books, but also has produced two spinoff trilogies as well as a number of standalone books related to this "universe" of hers.  That may be daunting for those who contemplate reading all of it, but I simply applaud her hard work and obvious love for the craft of fiction writing. And after Terry Goodkind finished his ultra-long twelve-volume The Sword of Truth fantasy series, he decided to continue it with more books. Contrast these two with The Song of Ice and Fire (or "Game of Thrones") series author George R.R. Martin, who has been sitting on his hands for several years with the unfinished sixth installment, The Winds of Winter, while the HBO adapted-series has long left his series storyline far behind...shameful.  Stephen King's Dark Tower series was written very erratically over decades until, following his recovery from a near-fatal accident when he was run over by a van, he produced the final three massive volumes in a span of a couple of years.  And with Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, he wrote the first three books in the 1950s but didn't get around to concluding it with the final two (and a couple of prequels) until the 1980s.  So there is no discernible pattern to how series installments come out...but I tend to appreciate the professionalism of writers like Clare in getting the product out in timely fashion for her devoted fans.  Bravo, Cassandra...

Ran the May Day Glow Run 5K Yesterday Evening

The last time I had run the May Day Glow Run 5K in 2017 it was based at the Tioga Town Center off Newberry Road, with the course winding up and down the adjacent residential neighborhood's streets.  I was thrown off when it finally dawned on me yesterday just a few hours before the race that its site had changed to a smaller subdivision called Arbor Greens, about a half-mile further west on Newberry Road and on the north side...more properly in Jonesville than Tioga.  They had also listed online that the registration would close at 6:30 pm, so I had to get there earlier than planned...and then went over to the nearby Tioga Starbucks, where I watched the Kentucky Derby on my smartphone.  Then I made my way back to Arbor Greens, not knowing at all what to expect from this different version of the May Day Glow Run...only that it would be dark...

I ran the race, which began at 8:15, with no problems other than that the humidity felt a lot higher than the official 40%...the temperature was around 85, not a problem to an old South Florida boy like me.  I enjoyed the positive spirit of the runners and walkers...the race was demographically weighted heavily toward children and teens.  This was most likely due to the fact that it was organized by Newberry Community Christian School.  And they did a great job running it...with a small problem at the end.  Like most other races, there was an awards ceremony for the best overall finishers and for those in different age categories.  But the young man entrusted to announcing the awards demonstrated clearly that he did not want to be there and increasingly announced the winners with marked impatience, soon not even reading the names but just the bib numbers in a rush...he couldn't wait to get out of there.  That was sad to witness, since the background race organization was done so well and this was their chance to publicly interface directly with the assembled runners...which due to this individual went badly.  Still, I plan to run it next year if it's still "on"...after all, nothing's compelling me to stick around for the awards.  I did finish with my easy-paced time of 30:38 and it was the second race in a row that I received an award for top finisher in my age category because I was the ONLY finisher in my age category...talk about total domination...

2019 Kentucky Derby Today

I'm one of those seasonal sports followers whose interest sharply peaks during iconic annual championships, and horse racing is a case in point. Today's Kentucky Derby for the best three-year-old thoroughbreds, held at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, stands as the premier event in this sport.  The original favorite for this 20-horse field was Omaha Beach, which was scratched just recently due to an entrapped epiglottis that interfered with the horse's breathing...minor surgery should correct the problem.  Now we're left with a long list of longshots and a small number of contenders, the three favorites so far, Game Winner, Roadster, and Improbable, having the same trainer...Bob Baffert, who interestingly was the trainer for both recent Triple Crown winners American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018.   It should be a fun race to watch, but with post time set for 6:46 pm I'm going to be pressed to see it since I'll be preparing for my own race, the May Day Glow Run 5K, taking place in Tioga a little ways west of Gainesville...that one begins at 8.  Just for fun and without any special knowledge of the horse, I picked Tacitus out of the lineup to root for in the Derby...it has respectable odds (10-1) at this writing and stands out visually, being grey.  We'll see what happens...by the way, the race and all of the hype preceding it for hours will be broadcast on NBC starting at 2:30.  Whoever wins this race will not be facing a recovered Omaha Beach in the remaining Triple Crown races, his trainer hoping he'll be ready for the year-end Breeder's Cup...of course by then I'll be completely ignoring horse racing like I usually do...

Later...Maximum Security, which leapfrogged over the other contenders to be the betting favorite on race day, pretty much headed the pack from start to finish and impressively won the 2019 Kentucky Derby.  Now let's see what the next race, the Preakness, brings...

A few minutes later...wow, Maximum Security was just disqualified due to interference and longshot Country House proclaimed the winner...I don't think there will be a Triple Crown winner this year...

Quote of the Week...from Stephen Curry

Whatever that means, however you got on that mountain, why not try to climb it? And do it in your own way.                                                                  ---Stephen Curry

I picked Stephen Curry, the incredibly talented and poised guard for the twice-champion Golden State Warriors, for this week's quote because, after all, we're in the middle of the NBA playoffs and all eyes are on his team to see whether they can "three-peat".  Curry definitely has his own style of play and is a full-court player, i.e. he is tenacious on both offense and defense.  Only a few of us are on Stephen's "mountain" of being a star basketball player, but we all have something that interests us or provides positive feedback as to our talents.  Everybody's different, and sometimes the mountain is a disability or adversity to climb over and overcome.  The main thing is to climb...and as suggested, to it in our own way.  That doesn't mean rejecting advice and instruction along the way...part of doing things our own way is practicing a discerning volition with what resources to accept from others and what won't work for us.  In the long run, after all is said, I believe it's the process and struggles to better ourselves that dwarf the actual ultimate achievement in the end...it's about filling our days with meaningful, directed goals and making responsible choices about how to proceed.  Very uplifting, Mr. Curry!

More on Barr After His Senate Testimony Yesterday

If you've been reading this blog these past few weeks you already know that I've generally been a defender of Attorney General William Barr, especially following the issuance of the Mueller Report on Russian interference in our 2016 elections to his office in March.  He and his Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein went over it and produced a four-page summary which stated that there wasn't enough uncovered evidence to pursue a conspiracy charge against Donald Trump or his campaign...and that after Mueller left any prosecutorial questions about his obstruction of the investigations to Barr's office he had decided not to pursue any charges of obstruction.  But since sitting presidents are not subject to criminal prosecution while in office and that the avenue for dealing with lawbreaking on the presidential level is through the Congressional impeachment process as mandated by the U.S. Constitution, I felt that the integrity in Barr's decision-making came down to whether or not he would actually release the Mueller Report...after careful redaction to protect classified data, grand juries, and innocent third parties...to Congress and the American public.  This he did...so why do I now have a few beefs with him?

Soon after Barr released his summary, Robert Mueller had sent him a letter complaining that the Attorney General, while not straying from the facts, had distorted the nature of the report.  Of course, I realize, like previous attorneys general from earlier presidents, this one is also naturally biased toward protecting the administration he serves.  But in his testimony yesterday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Barr made the claim that if a president believes that an investigation of his own activities is unfair and that he is innocent, then he has the right to stop it.  So I ask...as did Senator Schumer during his opening remarks on the Senate floor this morning...when is a president ever going to state that he is NOT innocent during an ongoing investigation?  This sounds like a roadmap to a dictatorship. Mueller had also revealed his disappointment that Barr, when provided by the Mueller team with their own summaries...already devoid of any redactable material...refused to release them.  I'm looking forward to hearing Robert Mueller testify before the House Judiciary Committee to hear his take on things, but I think there is something I can personally do about all this...

Like the overwhelming majority of American people I haven't read the Mueller report, his team's summaries...or even Attorney General Barr's initial four-page synopsis.  But that's about to end as I am set to go though it all...the results should be interesting and at least I won't be babbling here about second-hand information and innuendos...

A few minutes later: okay, I just read the initial March 24th summary by Barr...it seemed fine to me.  Excuse me now while I read Mueller's "protest" letter...

The March 27th letter from Mueller to Barr was brief and pointed, charging that the Attorney General's summary "did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this Office's work and conclusions."  He then disclosed that he had two days earlier sent Barr an already redacted report along with "executive summaries" for each section.  Mueller urged Barr to immediately release this report to Congress and the public.  Instead, Barr ignored Mueller's urging and worked on his own redaction, delaying its release until April 18th.  And herein lies the problem as I see it: nearly four weeks of Trump running around boasting of being "completely exonerated" and the semi-comatose American public compliantly lapping it all up.  Well, I guess the next step is for me to actually read the full report itself...only then will I be able to comment in an informed manner on the alleged discrepancies between Barr's summary and Mueller's intent.  But this will take a wee bit longer to accomplish: it's nearly 400 pages long, I hear...

Weekly Short Stories: 1946 Science Fiction, Part 2

I continued my look back at the best science fiction short stories from 1946 with my second installment of reviews from the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 8 (1946).  Ray Bradbury, the famed author of works like Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, and Something Wicked This Way Comes, makes his appearance here as well as does Arthur C. Clarke of 2001: A Space Odyssey renown.  Here are the next stories appearing in the book...

RESCUE PARTY by Arthur. C. Clarke
There is a star in our galaxy on the verge of becoming a nova, and the planets in its system will consequently be destroyed, any life on them obliterated.  An interstellar rescue expedition is rushing ahead of the explosion to the third planet, where there are reports of intelligent life...I think you know where this is all going.  Only one problem: once they get there, they find the planet deserted: where did everybody go?  Guess you'll have to read it to find out...

PLACET IS A CRAZY PLACE by Fredric Brown
Humanity has branched out with its explorations to other stars, and Placet is a planet in one of these, which happens to be a double-star system causing its orbit to meander wildly as well as create a quite impossible phenomenom cause by the interaction between one star...composed of matter...and the other, composed of "contraterrene" or anti-matter.  A man stationed there describes the many bizarre manifestations he experiences...this is a very funny little story, not something that necessarily makes any significant statement...

CONQUEROR'S ISLE by Nelson S. Bond
This is a special story in that the time setting is around 1945 instead of some far-off future point...a departure from the sci-fi norm.  A bedraggled flight bomber is being interviewed by a naval medical officer following his rescue at sea. Lt. Brady claims that he and his crew were swept by a severe storm into a crash landing off the shore of a small unknown Pacific island...where they were met by people who seem to be operating on as much of a higher level than ordinary humans as we are above the ape man.  There is a conspiracy on their part, claims Brady as he relates his tale of capture and eventual escape, to take over the world.  But where is this island and what will the good doctor do after hearing this account?  The ending is a little jolting...

THE MILLION YEAR PICNIC by Ray Bradbury
A family sometime off in the future ostensibly takes a pleasure rocket trip to Mars...they're going to walk around, explore, and have a nice picnic on the Red Planet, you see.  But the parents of the three boys, as the story progresses, gradually unravel the real reasons for their excursion, reasons that become more somber until the tale's final remarks as the family finally encounters the Martians...

More from 1946 next week...