Just Finished Reading In the Woods by Tana French

In the Woods, written by Tana French and published in 2007, is a psychological crime novel set in Ireland...with the emphasis on "psychological".  Adam Ryan, going now by the name "Rob", is a police detective working on the Dublin Murder Squad.  When he was a boy Adam went out in the woods outside his rural Irish hometown with two friends...something terrible and unknown attacked them with only Adam returning with a blocked memory, clothes ripped with someone else's blood all over them.  The disappearances were never solved...Adam later joined the police and changed his name to Rob in order not to bring attention to his earlier crisis.  And now there is a new crisis in almost the exact same location: a teenage girl has been found brutally murdered and on what looks like an ancient sacrificial stone in the area.  Ryan, along with fellow detectives Cassie Maddox and Sam O'Neill, are assigned the case...which reignites all of the old suppressed memories that he had from the earlier experience, while Cassie expresses her views on the nature of psychopaths.  The story is told from Ryan's viewpoint, who is brutally honest with his mistakes and character flaws as he stumbles his way through this case and his relationships with others...

In the Woods is one of those stories that seem to be about one thing in the beginning and then morph into something entirely different...I kind of like this paradigm-shifting in fiction.  But if you're intrigued from the early part of the book into reading on to the resolution at the end, you may find yourself bitterly disappointed: it's an entirely different kind of resolution! An important outgrowth of the story is that angle on psychopathic personality types, a topic I plan to explore in a few days on this blog.  Tana French is clearly a talented fiction writer and I'm going to read more of her works, especially this Dublin Murder Squad series for which In the Woods was the first book...

My November 2019 Running Report

In November I ran a total of 120 miles, missing three days and with 13.1 miles being my single longest run of the month.  I ran two races: the Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon (on the Hawthorne Trail) on the 10th and the Gainesville Turkey Trot 10K (at Tacachale) on the 28th. In the half-marathon I ran a slow pace while the 10K was a bit faster.  In the middle of the month I had to take a break from running for three days, as I was undergoing some kind of allergic/inflammatory general attack on my body, which hits me from time to time and makes me feel pretty crappy.  But I recovered and feel good...

I'd like to continue with my established pattern of training, especially with those long weekend runs.  I don't see any particular races coming up for me in December, but in January there is the Ocala Half-Marathon...an event that I've run twice before and has a great course south of the city in horse country.  I still wonder to myself whether I might not again try to tackle the 26.2 mile marathon distance in a future race...for now, I'll just take it from week to week and see how I do with my progress...

Quote of the Week...from Melody Beattie

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
                                                                                 ---Melody Beattie

Melody Beattie is an author of self-help books with a focus on codependency...I first discovered her above quote before I found out anything else about her.  But sometimes the message has such a universal, obvious application that it doesn't matter who said it...unless, of course, the speaker was a real scoundrel.  Yesterday was Thanksgiving and my wife Melissa and our two grown-up children Will and Rebecca enjoyed it together with a fantastic home-prepared meal.  What a blessing for us!  I believe that it's important to instill within oneself a habit of looking gratefully at the good things that life provides...health, good relationships, prosperity...these are things we seek and should not withhold our thanks when God blesses us with them.  I think a lot of us look back with regret at our own pasts, both for our mistakes and missed opportunities as well as with anger at the bad things we perceive that others did to us...but if we temper that negativity with some acknowledgment that there were also good...even wonderful...things going on as well as good people who cared about us, then as Ms. Beattie pointed out, such gratitude does make better sense of our past.  From time to time as I go through my daily life with its many demands, frustrations, and worries, it's also important for me to realistically assess my situation...and that involves taking into account the good things currently going on in my life and being thankful for it all.  It also can be said that even with defeats and failures, gratitude is in order since from those experiences much can be learned. And regarding the future, knowing that I've enjoyed great blessings in the past as well as the present, I can see a future in which more for which I will be grateful is sure to come...let's all plan on a blessed future!

Ran Gainesville's 2019 Turkey Trot 10K This Morning

This morning I drove over to Tacachale, a local residential and care community for the developmentally disadvantaged, and ran their annual Thanksgiving Turkey Trot race.  I've run it  three times before...this year they gave the choice of going 5K (3.1 miles) or 10K (6.2 miles): I stuck with the 10K distance.  After my deliberately slow half-marathon race earlier this month I decided to try running at a more honest pace and finished with a time of 1:02:18, at a 10 minute/mile pace.  The course was pretty crowded...679 5K finishers and 207 for the 10K, but the organizers did manage to stagger the two distances' starting times by about five minutes and varied the course early on, preventing everybody from tripping over each other.  The 10K course took us down paths of asphalt, dirt, woods, and fields...pretty fun!  The parking for the many contestants was well-directed and hassle-free, hydration stations were provided, spaced along the course for thirsty runners, and there was bathroom access near the starting line.  Following the race they had water, Gatorade, bananas, bagels, and cookies.  I thought the whole atmosphere was very positive and encouraging...I enjoyed the experience.  Also, none of the problems I had experienced in runs gone by happened...no cramping or deep coughing and my energy level stayed strong to the end.  The skies were clear and the temperatures stayed in the 60s throughout the run with around 60% humidity...great conditions.  Looking forward to continuing my training...

Here are the results of the Turkey Trot...just click on the following link: [results].

Weekly Short Stories: 1954 Science Fiction, Part 1

Today I begin looking at 1954's short science fiction, as published in the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 16 (1954).

THE TEST by Richard Matheson
Richard Matheson wrote a few of the old Twilight Zone episodes and this tale reminds me a bit of them.  It's in the future...not too far off...and the law decrees that old people, every few years, undergo tests to ascertain their viability in society.  And if they don't pass they're killed...sounds like a terrible fate, yet in more primitive cultures the elderly...especially women...were often abandoned to death because their role as contributors fell behind their dependency.  In a family where the aging father has one of these tests looming ahead  to decide whether he lives or not, his son sees...as he coaches him through practice sessions...that he'll probably fail.  A warning tale...to those reading it...not to let our own "real" society to debase itself to this level...

ANACHRON by Damon Knight
Two eccentric brothers live on an obscure island off the coast of Italy.  One collects art and the other tinkers with technology.  The latter accidentally creates a portal in time through a bubble...and so the time travel paradoxes ensue to the point where the author's narrative and all the various "rules" he espouses confused me to the point where at times I lost his train of reasoning.  I was able to follow the story's general parameters, though...but I'm getting pretty weary about this time travel subgenre of sci-fi stories...

BLACK CHARLIE by Gordon R. Dickson
In the future during a time when interstellar travel and settlement takes place, an art trader and assessor is given a tip that a great treasure exists on an obscure planet.  Going there he finds the place inhospitable and swampy...a man presents him a small box and the sculpture inside looks like anything but art.  Surprised and saddened by the trader's rejection, the man leads him through the swamp to the piece's creator, which turns out to be an intelligent, indigenous being...jet-black and resembling an otter.  The creature learns that his art needs improvement and...why not read the rest of the story for yourself. I think that the message of this story is that art comes from the inner self and for one to truly appreciate it he or she needs to understand the perspective of the artist and not simply judge the work on its external merits according to a set of rules.  A story about prejudgment and enlightenment...

DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN by William Tenn
Our Solar System...and hence the Earth...is being threatened by an alien race of insect-like invaders...the intense war has been going on for years and battle lines fluctuate between Jupiter and Saturn.  The human population has been so depleted by the conflict that a method of recycling and constructing whole, living bodies from the protoplasm of killed soldiers has been devised, creating in essence a "zombie" armed forces.  A human commander is set to meet a group of these new soldiers that will be working under him and suddenly has to revise his notions of who is accorded the designation...and dignity...of being regarded as truly human.  A very allegorical tale, another one about prejudice...

Next week: more 1954 science fiction short stories...

Baltimore Ravens on Fire, Need to Make Most of This Season

In the NFL's American Conference North Division are four teams, three of which I tend to route against: Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, in that order of dislike.  Only the Baltimore Ravens, led by their great head coach John Harbaugh, have ever earned my following.  That Super Bowl season nearly twenty years ago with their tenacious defense, their being the only team Miami beat during the Dolphins' miserable 1-15 2007 season (and I'm grateful to them for that), and that year a little while back when they won that thrilling 35-32 Super Bowl over the San Francisco 49ers...a team I also traditionally root against, all earned my support.  It's true that in the opening game this year they pretty much humiliated "my" Miami Dolphins 59-10, but I don't hold that against the Ravens but rather upper-level Dolphins management, who openly embarked on a tanking strategy in order to accumulate high picks in the next draft. But look at how the Ravens have done in their last five games and Miami's thrashing doesn't look so bad in comparison...they handled Seattle, a regular challenger, 30-16, they handily knocked New England from the ranks of the undefeated 37-20, they routed admittedly hapless Cincinnati 49-13, they crushed a very good Houston team 41-7, and last Sunday pretty much destroyed last year's NFC champs the Los Angeles Rams 45-6.  The Ravens are a complete team on both offense and defense, but much of their success this year is being attributed to the phenomenal performance of their second-year quarterback Lamar Jackson...

Lamar Jackson, with 24 touchdown passes and only 5 interceptions this season and who is destined for a 1000+ yard rushing season, is an excellent passer, not only in his accuracy but also in reading the defense and being able to quickly adjust to it.  He also rushes a lot, and although he has borne that burden well so far, it makes me a bit squeamish whenever he tears through the line on a play and is eventually hit hard, tackled, and piled on...that's how folks get injured in the game: just ask his backup quarterback Robert Griffin III, who had a spectacular rookie season as a running/passing QB like Jackson until a late-season injury began a chain of physical problems that subsequently plagued his once-so-promising career and now has him in a second-string position.  Carolina's Cam Newton seems to be undergoing the same fate as Griffin as all those hard hits seem to have done their accumulated effect on his body...once almost invincible but now fragile.  Right now Lamar Jackson is standing high on top of the sports world...also seemingly invincible.  But somewhere down the line...and hopefully much later than sooner...I fear that the same fate will befall him that did in his colleagues Griffin and Newton.  That's why I titled this article as I did: the Baltimore Ravens are a solid first place in their division, with a current record that gets them a first-round bye in the playoffs.  They're only a game behind New England for the AFC's best record, and if they can catch up with the Patriots by year's end they'll be home until the Super Bowl since they already beat them this year.  Right now I think Baltimore and those doggone 49ers are the best teams in the NFL and my picks to make the Super Bowl...but wait, they're playing each other this Sunday!  I'm looking forward to that game, which will take place at 1 pm in Baltimore.  Go Ravens, capitalize on your present fortunes and make 2019 your year...and please, Lamar, be careful...

My 500 All-Time Favorite Songs: #370-361

Let's see, it's Monday once again, so I think I'll lay out the next ten songs on my all-time top 500 list, along with the customary commentary.  Man, do I ever like these songs...

370 NIAGARA FALLS...Sufjan Stevens
This is one of the songs on my list that was neither a standard album track nor a singles release (or B-side).  Niagara Falls can be found on Stevens' 2003 Michigan album, but only on the vinyl edition's second disc.  I discovered Sufjan Stevens in 2009 and quickly came to like much of his earlier music, including this brief and sweet, nostalgic song of childhood when he could see Niagara Falls from way off in the distance.  In today's Internet-world, Niagara Falls is pretty easy to find: the singer's mellow voice and his trademark banjo highlight it...

369 POSITIVELY FOURTH STREET...Bob Dylan
Possibly the greatest putdown song of all time, the closing line was beyond hilarious: "Yes, I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes, you'd know what a drag it is to see you".  I never did care all that much for Dylan's 1965 blockbuster hit Like a Rolling Stone, but when this song came out I had to stop and take notice.  He's got some more entries on my favorites list in weeks to come...

368 THE BITCH IS BACK...Elton John
The summer and fall of 1974 in my life was a time that I look back on as being positive and optimistic...this song captures a lot of that feeling with the singer asserting his dogged determination to succeed and those standing in the way could just step back or get bowled over.  It's one of those "I'm gonna succeed and if you don't like it, too bad" anthems along the lines of Tom Petty's I Won't Back Down.  I wish Elton had recorded more of these strong rockers...

367 GET BACK...the Beatles
The Beatles' monster hit single Get Back...sung by Paul McCartney with guest Billy Preston working wonders on the keyboard...came out in 1969, the year before their final album Let It Be was released. Get Back was a track on that album but they cut off the great ending and ruined it...listen to it from another source than Let It Be.  Back during '69 I remember strongly disliking both of the band's Abbey Road  hits Something and Come Together...it wouldn't be for another couple of years before I listened to the whole album and discovered some masterpiece tracks on it.  Get Back was more of an old-style Beatles song, very fun to listen to...

366 THE PORPOISE SONG...the Monkees
In 1968 when the Monkees recorded Head, their sixth studio album in only two years, during which time they acted in 107 Monkees TV series episodes and went on numerous publicity and concert tours and interviews, the critics panned them claiming that they were a manufactured band.  But how many award-winning, lauded musical acts since then don't write their own music or play their own instruments...the hypocrisy here is outrageous, in my opinion.  Head's The Porpoise Song is a collaborative singing effort of Davy Jones and Mickey Dolenz, with a dreamy-sounding accompaniment backing them...the album was recorded after the TV series was canceled and was the soundtrack for the same-named movie starring the band. The Porpoise Song was featured in the movie Vanilla Sky...

365 WILL IT GO ROUND IN CIRCLES...Billy Preston
I enjoyed the summer of 1973, and this song was a big hit then...hence the positive associations with going to the beach.  It's also the second song on today's list Preston was involved in...look back a couple of songs.  He reminded me a bit of Stevie Wonder on this song, a great compliment to be sure.  And Will It Go Round in Circles contains one of my all-time favorite lines: "I've got a story ain't got no moral, let the bad guy win every once in a while".  This comes in handy from time to time, like when I'm watching the Alabama Crimson Tide or New England Patriots play or receiving the disappointing news on election night...

364 WONDERIN'...Neil Young
In the early 1980s, much to his recording company's chagrin and who later sued him for it, Neil Young made a string of narrowly-themed and just-as-narrowly-appreciated albums...one of these, from which Wonderin' came, was a tribute to old-time fifties rock n' roll.  But Wonderin' is Neil Young through and through, and the official music video to it is one of the funniest I've seen...and which to me is the forerunner to Peter Gabriel's artistically-styled Sledgehammer video that came out three years later...

363 WELCOME TO THE BLACK PARADE...My Chemical Romance
This song...as well as its entire 2006 concept album The Black Parade...by this indie/alternative rock band, deals with the unsettling and often taboo subject of death, especially in the accompanying official video.  It's hard to imagine, with the vivid and disturbing imagery of that video, that this piece would be a source of comfort and impart a sweet spirit as a moving tribute to someone recently deceased, but that's the impression I got from it.  One of the reasons I think death is often taboo in our society for discussion and artistic expression is the absolutist way in which religions treat the subject...all of them have their own ideas on exactly what happens and if someone comes out with a creative and imaginative treatment of it, there's not only a possibility but rather a certainly that it will garner criticism.  I thought the song stood well on its own without the video, but that video...

362 BABY LET ME TAKE YOU HOME...the Animals
Back in 1964 when as a seven-year-old brat I thought of the Animals...not the Beatles...as my favorite rock band, this great song was released in the USA following their big hit House of the Rising Sun.  I always looked forward to watching the Ed Sullivan Show when they were scheduled and on one of those evenings came to despise President Lyndon Johnson when the show...and their appearance...was preempted because of his televised nationwide address about some far-off place called Vietnam.  I still think of Eric Burdon as the greatest singer in the genre's history...it's too bad the band couldn't write their own songs the way the Beatles or Rolling Stones did...

361 SAW LIGHTNING...Beck
Saw Lightning is easily my favorite song of this year, by the accomplished LA-based alternative rock artist Beck.  The funny thing about it is that after it came out my wife Melissa and I were walking down Daytona Beach early one evening when the whole western sky erupted into lightning...kinda scary, although some dumbbell beachgoers just stood there out in the ocean staring at it all and others thought it would be just peachy recording it all on their smartphones: the two of us hauled ass back to the hotel.  Later I heard of someone out on Ormond Beach getting struck by lightning and killed...I wonder if it happened when we were out walking.  This song, with a strong blues and religious flavor, is heavy on percussion and awesome riffs...

That's it for this week...next week I'll cover songs #360-351...

Madame Engadine's Elegant Parisian Party

I'll leave you to stew a minute in speculation about the meaning of this article's title...let me just say that my recurring "presence" in that place is due in large part to the abysmally low level of quality in late night television programming when I get home from work during the week.  Other than an occasional live sports event...usually on the west coast...or a very rare South Park episode I like, I have the cable news channels with their perennial, wearisome war of words between the two main political parties...it continues in the opening segments of the popular late-night talk shows, who have substituted angry and vicious political tripe for humor, along with guest "stars" I've never heard of.  So what's left for me? Short of switching to the ambient music station...which usually sends me into a deep sleep...I head off to YouTube to watch what is probably my favorite series of all time, and more likely than not, my favorite episode of that series from the late 1960s.  It is about a British secret agent, played by the late Patrick McGoohan, who angrily resigns, get knocked out, and awakens to find himself in a prison that is in the form of a fancy resort: the Village...location unknown.  I'm speaking of course about The Prisoner, and the fantastic episode is A., B. and C.  So what does this have to do with Madame Engadine's fancy party?

In The Prisoner, the kidnapped agent is told he is now Number Six...all residents there are assigned numbers, both the inmates and wardens.  Running the Village is Number Two, presumably with the mysterious, unknown Number One on top of the ruling hierarchy.  The entire series involves attempt after attempt to lure Number Six into explaining why he resigned...but the agent refuses to break.  In A., B., and C. they come up with a scheme...through the invention of a technique that broadcasts Number Six's dreams on a television screen...to make their target dream of a popular French party he used to frequent and then have him meet in succession there three different contacts, dubbed "A.", "B.", and "C.", one of whom Number Two thinks will solve the mystery of his resignation.  It is this party, hosted by the warm and sophisticated Paris socialite Madame Engadine, that has ultimately become what I now hold to be the impossible standard of what any decent party should be.  Impossible because, after all, the good Madame obviously had a mansion and a lot of money to spend for it and most parties are on a much more modest scale.  Still, I liked hers because the guests were personally greeted and welcomed and then accorded freedom of movement and association without being corralled into overly-organized events such as the idiotic games that plague (and to me, ruin) many parties and social events.  I definitely think that Number Six liked her parties, too. Check out the episode...you may end up watching the whole seventeen-part series.  And dig that party...

Just Finished Reading The Glass Ocean by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White

The Glass Ocean is a 2018 historical fiction novel written by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White.  Its focus is the May, 1915 doomed voyage of the passenger ship Lusitania, which was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-Boat off the coast of Ireland in the thick of World War I.  The narrative is divided between three protagonists and two times: writer Sarah Blake, with the burden of caring for her early-onset-Alzheimer's mother, is running out of money in 2013 as the proceeds of her book from five years earlier are drying up and she needs a new source of writing inspiration.  Opening up an old chest her mother was storing, Sarah discovers that her great-grandfather was employed as a steward on the Lusitania and died with it...and he left behind some papers that send her on a trail to England to unravel the mysteries surrounding that ship's last trip and demise.  The narrative shifts to 1915 and alternately...with occasional returns to 2013 and Sarah...describes the experiences of Lusitania passengers Caroline, a wealthy American industrialist's wife with a talent for the piano, and Tess, the daughter of a traveling con man who is now teaming up with her sister to commit a great forgery on the ship. The story has the name Langford to unite both eras: Robert in 1915, the dashing love interest of both women then, and his descendant John in 2013, whom Sarah has persuaded to help her with her investigation.  The authors inserted into their tale the notion that there was some significant wartime espionage going on during the ill-fated Atlantic crossing, with suspicion and fear abounding.  As with all historical fiction, I found myself wondering where the truth ended and the fiction began, finally deciding that my knowledge of the true events of the Lusitania sinking wouldn't be greatly enhanced by this tale and to simply treat this book as a good piece of adventure, mystery and romance fiction...which it was. It's not a very long book, and I think you'd enjoy it, too...

Quote of the Week...from Amy Klobuchar

I'm not going to go for things just because they sound good on a bumper sticker and then throw in a free car.  We have an obligation to have people's backs, be honest about what we can pay for, and be smart about how we do it.                                             Amy Klobuchar.

Amy Klobuchar is the senior senator from Minnesota and a Democratic candidate for president in 2020.  The above quote she made at Wednesday night's Democratic presidential debate I picked up on a retweet from Utah's independent conservative Republican Evan McMullin, who "liked" her statement.  If you're ever wondering why Senator Klobuchar is my first choice among the candidates for president, what she said pretty much exemplifies my respect for her reasonability.  Not that I agree with all of her opinions...like most of the rest of the Democratic field Klobuchar tends to treat Trump like he's the most despicable creature on Earth: I'm not a personal fan of him either, but my dislike isn't to the extent of the "resisters" and I find myself agreeing with some of his positions on issues, especially those relating to national defense and border security...but then again I recognize that this election is essentially a referendum on Donald Trump and the opposition sees its own unity in terms of going after him.  The Minnesota senator has always been wildly popular in her home state, her constituents recognizing her attention to their concerns by rewarding her with repeat landslide election victories there.  Klobuchar is one of those senators who tend to steer away from "horizontal" tit-for-tat partisan politics in her role there and instead works within her caucus and with the Republicans to try and come up with bills that advance issues she deems important...which I think most Americans want our elected officials to be doing instead of whining and shoving at each other like petulant little babies.  When I'm watching C-Span2, the channel that covers live the U.S. Senate proceedings...and Senator Klobuchar takes the floor to speak, I know that I'm about to be briefed well on an important issue, with the speaker rationally presenting its pros and cons without impugning the integrity of the opposition, expressing her conclusion while encouraging others...usually on the other side of the aisle...to join her effort.  I think she would make a fantastic president and is only far back in the pack of Democratic candidates because the vast majority of her party's potential supporters are placing their current hopes in Joe Biden, who quite frankly has disappointed me so far this campaign season.  It's still a long way off from March's Florida Primary...if I had to vote right now it would be for Amy Klobuchar, although as she is such a reasonable person I don't think she'll stay in the campaign too long after Iowa and New Hampshire if her candidacy doesn't eventually catch on...

Checking Out What's Going On in "My" Pro Soccer Leagues

For this 2019-20 professional soccer season my interest in the sport has abruptly waned...I'm not quite sure why this is so, but there it is.  It's been quite some time since I tuned in to a Mexican Premier League (Liga MX) or Major League Soccer match...and I haven't watched a single English Premier League match all season.  This in spite of me having following all three leagues, many of their games available on my cable service...Mexico's is on Univision, MLS games were shown (their season's now over) on ESPN and English soccer on NBC-Sports.  Out of curiosity I checked the respective standings of these three leagues I follow...I usually ignore the rest of the world's many pro soccer leagues (although I used to lightly follow Germany's Bundesliga) to see who's doing well, who isn't, and how "my" teams are doing...

In Major League Soccer (covering the USA and Canada), whose seasons lie completely within the calendar year and thus don't need hyphenation, the 2019 season is over and the Seattle Sounders defeated Toronto in the championship playoff match on November 10.  For the regular season, Los Angeles FC had the best record and so earned this year's Supporter's Shield award.  I generally support the Portland and Orlando franchises in MLS: the former managed to squeak into the playoffs while the latter once again missed the postseason, finishing a dismal next-to-last in their division.  In Mexico's Liga MX there's only one week left in the Apertura split season for 2019-20 and then the top eight finishers (out of this season's 19 teams) will be eligible for the Liguilla championship playoffs.  My team, the UANL Tigres, has won at least one Liguilla championship in each of the previous four seasons and is again qualified for the postseason...they're fighting for a higher seed which would give them an marked advantage in the playoffs.  In the English Premier League Liverpool is undefeated so far and running away in first place from the others.  Surprisingly, "my" Leicester City is hanging on to second place...defending champs Manchester City have already suffered three losses this season and may find themselves too far behind to make up the difference in 2019-20...

I'd like to watch Tigres play in the upcoming Liguilla, but the match would need to be on the weekend and one that is actually televised.  As for English soccer, their premier league to me is the best in the world for being played at such a high level of skill, combined with a more competitive distribution of teams than is the case in other countries like Spain, Germany, France, and Italy.  If I'm going to revitalize my interest in soccer, my best bet is to make some time on Saturday to watch one of the English matches...

Weekly Short Stories: 1953 Science Fiction, Part 4

Today I finish my look back at science fiction short stories from the year 1953, as selected by the editors in the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 15 (1953).  Two of them I've already reviewed on this blog and the last one you might already be familiar with if you're a "classic" television fan...

TIME IS THE TRAITOR by Alfred Bester
I discussed this story earlier on this blog...here's a link to that article: [link]. An uncannily accurate professional decision-maker travels the galaxy while imposing his quirky personality on everyone...including murdering any man with the name "Kruger".  His staff hire a genial ex-boxer to befriend him and root out the cause of his rage...the bribes and hush money are seriously cutting into the company's profits. One important thing I recently picked up while rereading it (for the umpteenth time): when remembering events and people from years gone by, how we ourselves have changed during that intervening span will alter those memories...something that I've been emphasizing of late in some articles...

THE WALL AROUND THE WORLD by Theodore Cogswell
Another of my favorite sci-fi tales that I've previously discussed: click on the following link: [link].  A boy living in a society based on magic that is enclosed by a vertical thousand-foot wall shows an aptitude for technology and machines, severely frowned upon by the authorities in his "world". He wants to scale the wall, whose smooth surface precludes any climbing...and the best broomsticks will only reach a certain height.  It's the ending of this story that to me made it worth reading and brought it all together...a real paradigm-shifter...

THE MODEL OF A JUDGE by William Morrison
On a minor satellite of Saturn there lives a race of savage humanoid beings who would even attack and devour people...one of them, captured, trained, and operated on to restrain his carnivorous instincts and now deemed as a trustworthy member of human society, is picked to be the judge in a baking contest among the settlers' wives.  You can almost see how this one's gonna end once you get all the needed info about the protagonist...it all hinges on a metaphor somebody inadvertently blurts out...

HALL OF MIRRORS by Fredric Brown
A cyclic time-travel story with a special twist, I was impressed with both the logic and resigned decision-making of the protagonist...who incidentally turns out to be the only character.  I also felt that although the story itself gave a couple of examples of time travel into the past, its main thrust...that of time-travel into the future, might well be manageable at some time in the "future".  Given what happened to the time traveler, what decision would you make...and how certain would you be that you would "always" make it?  Check out the story to decipher all these cryptic remarks of mine...

IT'S A GOOD LIFE by Jerome Bixby
This story was adapted into a famous Twilight Zone episode starring the later series Lost in Space's Billy Mumy as a little boy in a rural midwestern American town...complete with surrounding cornfields...who is born with god-like abilities of mind-reading, telekinesis, and the ability to transmute matter.  The point, I think, of this tale was that it can sometimes be a good thing that babies and little children are relatively helpless because of their utter lack of social understanding and inability to see the consequences of their actions.  The written version, which I read first before seeing it on TV, is more sympathetic to little Anthony as he prefers reading the simple minds of the little animals around him and likes to construct places they enjoy going to...the Twilight Zone kid is just simply a little monster with hardly any redeeming qualities...

Next week I'll begin looking at science fiction short stories from 1954...

Just Finished Reading Poland by James A. Michener

Poland, by James A. Michener, is the third novel I've read by this late prolific author of forty.  A reflective historical look at this important eastern European country's past from the vantage point of three fictional families sharply divided by class, it was published in 1983, a little more than a year after that Eastern Bloc nation declared martial law and severely curtailed its people's freedoms.  By decade's end, though, communist rule would be overthrown and, following free elections in 1989, a capitalism system was instituted.  Michener's story goes up to and hints at the coup d'état in December, 1981 that put an abrupt end to liberalization in that society without covering it...since he would live on to 1997, I wonder what he thought about the subsequent fall of communism and the Soviet Union.  The novel itself spans nearly 800 years as it describes a stagnant social system in Poland of powerful landowning nobles called "magnates", lesser landowners called "gentry", and the peasants, comprising the vast majority of Poles and who for all practical purposes were the property and slaves of the magnates and gentry.  This grossly inequitable system would last into the last century when two cataclysmic world wars would forever uproot and transform their society...

If there are two important themes winding through this generally chronologically-presented novel, they are that (1) Poland was a land, without the benefit of natural barriers, that was constantly either under the threat of attack and occupation by outside forces or in the state of occupation by them, and (2) the magnates...and to a lesser degree the gentry...fiercely held onto their stranglehold on Polish society while always believing themselves to be enlightened, free, and democratic.  In the early centuries, as Michener laid it out, these ruling families demonstrated great patriotism and courage in the defense of their homeland from invaders.  But when Poland began to be partitioned...and ultimately eliminated from the map for more than a century...in the late 1700s by Prussia, Austria, and Russia, these same magnate families enthusiastically adopted the banners of their new national rulers in the interests of preserving their own properties and status.  Part of the problem that made Polish governments weak was that their ruling king was always elected by the magnate-controlled legislature and that usually weak kings were selected from abroad in order to ensure that none of them would become too powerful.  The other part of the problem was the so-called "Golden Freedom" in which just one member of the elected legislature could raise an objection and cause that entire session's work to be nullified...this caused a usually broken national government which kept the magnates strong and in ultimate control...

I'm not going into any detail describing the fictional families, characters, and locales...the author did a great job with developing and presenting them, though.  As with the previous James Michener novels I've read, Space and Centennial, I had to struggle a bit trying to figure out what was real history and what was a product of his vivid imagination.  The Tatar and Teutonic Knight invasions from the 1200s and 1400s respectively, the union with Lithuania, the partition period, and the many and often desperate struggles of the last century were well-presented...especially with regard to the horrors of Nazi occupation during World War II. You'll get to know a lot about Polish history, culture (especially paintings and classical music), geography and its society...at least up to the year 1981...if you read this worthwhile book.  Well, I guess it's about time for me to look up another James A. Michener novel to start on....

My 500 All-Time Favorite Songs: 380-371

Most of the songs on this week's list are distinguished not only for the great music in them, but also for their lyrics, some of which I've indicated.  Here's the next ten selections and my reactions...

380 TURN IT ON AGAIN...Genesis
The first Genesis song I ever liked, Turn It On Again first came out in 1980 but I only first heard it two years later when Gainesville's Rock-104 played it a lot.  A great collaborative effort between Phil Collins doing lead singing and drums, Mike Rutherford as guitarist/lyricist, and Tony Banks doing his magic on the keyboards.  I loved the instrumental buildup at the song's beginning...

379 INSTANT KARMA...John Lennon
In early 1970 when it was a hit, I didn't like this clashing, angry song by John Lennon but in subsequent years grew to greatly appreciate it...Instant Karma, looking back on it, might just well be the musical ancestor of the Grunge movement in later years.  Paul McCartney reportedly was very impressed with it as well...here's one of my favorite lines: "Instant Karma's gonna get you, gonna look you right in the face, better get yourself together darlin', join the human race"...

378 DREAMER...Supertramp
Dreamer was originally a 1974 British singles hit that became popular years later in the U.S. following the band's wildly successful Breakfast in America album...I recall it getting a lot of radio play in 1980.  Supertramp was a quality collaborative musical act...sadly one of many...that eventually broke up because its lead singer came to believe that he was bigger than the rest of the band.  Too bad, I thought their work was top-notch when they were all together: you'll be seeing them again on this list...

377 APPLE SCRUFFS...George Harrison
In 1971 I bought the George Harrison single What is Life, one of my favorite songs from that year.  The flip side is Apple Scruffs, a paean for the fans who hung around the Beatles when they were at their Apple recording studios...the harmonica reigns supreme in this underappreciated, sweet song.  Sometimes the B-side on those old singles turns out to be as good as the more promoted song on the other...

376 CECELIA...Simon and Garfunkel
In the spring of 1970 while my personal life as an angst-ridden thirteen-year-old was in turmoil, this singular track from the duo's final album Bridge Over Troubled Waters was released as a single.  It has very strange beat and what seemed to me a Caribbean flavor combined with some racy lyrics to present a standout, unforgettable tune...I was crazy about it back in '70...

375 MARTHA MY DEAR...the Beatles
This was one of Paul McCartney's songs off the band's White Album with extensive background arrangement by producer George Martin.  I first heard it in 1972...four years after the album's initial release.  It's one of this double album's best tracks in spite of the fact that the "Martha" old Paul seemed to be singing so romantically about turned out to be his own pet sheepdog...

374 THE RUNNER...Manfred Mann's Earth Band
With all the songs on this list that I associate with running, it's ironic that Manfred Mann's Earth Band's early 1980s song The Runner didn't appeal to me for that reason...I wasn't running then and hadn't been for years.  No, the lyrics had a broader meaning to me of striving hard for any worthwhile, challenging goal no matter what obstacles or opposition from others may arise...pretty inspiring...

373 NEW FRONTIER...Donald Fagen
This song should have been a monster hit in 1982...such a classy mix of nostalgic lyrics and jazzy rock.  Fagen's Steely Dan had split for a while back then and the band's lead singer scored big with this single...and the video is hilarious and romantic, one of the best I've seen.  The setting is the early years of the Kennedy administration in the early '60s when nuclear Armageddon at the height of the Cold War between America and the USSR hung menacingly over everyone but people still went about their lives without freaking out over the threat. Still, a lot of folks had built family bomb shelters out back...

372 STUPIFY...Disturbed
This 2000 hard rock song is a mood piece, expressing the singer's abject frustration at every turn of his situation until the point where he's "stupefied".  It's marked by a sharp, regular barking out of words, some of them unprintable.  My favorite part is the solemnity of the music and singer David Draiman slowly chanting in a Middle Eastern-style break toward the song's end the Hebrew "tefached", meaning "you will be afraid".  I also loved his spoken introductory words: "Yeah, bringing you another disturbing creation from the mind of one sick animal who can't tell the difference and gets stupefied"...

371 MOVIN' OUT (ANTHONY'S SONG)...Billy Joel
I've written before about a couple of songs that put down the rat race, claiming that spending that much time and energy for marginal material gain just isn't worth it...Movin' Out is the undisputed king of such songs.  Joel bluntly and sardonically lays it out on the line about a policeman moonlighting as a bartender: "Yeah, and he's tradin' in his Chevy for a Cadillac, you oughta know by now, and if he can't drive with a broken back, at least he can polish the fenders".  This was the opening track in Billy Joel's stupendous The Stranger album from 1977...the pinnacle of his creative output, in my opinion. I'm totally in sync with his message on Movin' Out, although in real life Joel himself seemed totally immersed in the rat race...

Next week: #370-361...

Election Season Getting Uglier By the Day

Normally I don't relate my experiences at work in a direct way, and this article...while veering a bit in that direction...is still in the end faithful to this "rule".  The other day while there I went on my first break, in mid-afternoon, and as usual went to the main break room where there are plenty of seats, a television, and several vending machines.  The TV, sadly, was loudly showing the ongoing impeachment hearings and there was only one other individual in the room with me, somebody I didn't know.  At one of the vending machines he began to loudly talk to me about how the hearings were just going to hurt the Democrats and then followed me to where I sat...with my paperback sci-fi book...opened...while continuing his one-sided rant.  I clearly did not want to continue this fruitless conversation, partially because dammit this was my break and I wasn't going to let someone else run it, and partially because when folks get as emotionally stirred up about politics as this dude was it's a waste of time to try to respectfully share my own opinions on the subject.  Finally I flat-out told him that I didn't care about any of it and he angrily trudged off, repeating to himself..."doesn't care about any of it".  The fact is that I do care about politics and if circumstances were different and had I decided to share my opinion I would have told him that I had been following politics and elections ever since the 1968 presidential primary campaign and election and don't need some brainwashed fool repeating what he just heard some spin doctor say on his favorite TV or radio show.  I know the main candidates and why they won or lost in the 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 presidential primaries and general elections, as well as the various times that the Senate and House of Representatives changed their majority parties.  With the current campaign I've already been weighing the different candidates according to factors like character, positions on the issues I care most about, and their general philosophies on government...and will then cast my single vote at the set time, first for the Florida Primary on March 17th and then for the 2010 general election on November 3rd.  In every single one of those years I just listed, I formulated my decisions early on about whom I supported during the primaries and then, once the eventual nominees became clear, whom I would support in November...1968 and 1972 happened before I was of voting age, though, with 1980 being the only election since then I missed out on voting in...

In light of that individual trying to harangue me at work with his unsolicited political comments, I expect the tone of political discourse to deteriorate to new lows as this already much-too-long campaign progresses.  I am a faithful and consistent voter and will from time to time make my personal opinions known on this blog...but I am not a campaigner, which is just as well because of the Hatch Act that prohibits partisan campaigning by employees where I work.  I WILL NOT allow myself to get caught up in all the negativity and vitriol surrounding current politics...I can't even stand watching late-night TV talk shows because most of the hosts seem to think it's a legitimate part of their show...especially that opening so-called "comedy" monologue...to insult and offend the other political side and its leader as much as possible. I already know what my voting choices are and, if my past history is any guide, am not at all likely to change my choice other than with "my" candidate dropping out of the race before the election.  So if you're one of those political zombies who get off on regurgitating their favorite media ideologue's talking points in other people's faces, you're wasting your breath going after me...

Just Finished Reading Full Throttle by Joe Hill

Joe Hill is the pen name of Joseph King, one of renowned horror fiction writer Stephen King's sons.  Hill has his own successful writing career, and this 2019 book Full Throttle is a collection of short stories that he wrote over the years, two of them in collaboration with his father.  Some of the stories, and the author acknowledged this, seem derivative.  But each of them is in essence its own original story with its own message...or moral, if you will.  I liked the stories but admit that they could be very troublesome for squeamish and overly sensitive readers, belonging as most of them do to the horror fiction genre.  By the way, I also enjoyed the introduction, in which Hill discussed himself, his famous dad as well as his personal take on the craft of writing...

Here's a listing of the individual stories...with some commentary following each one that I included to aid me in better remembering them sometime off in the future.

1 THROTTLE (with Stephen King)...similar to movie Duel, "victims" are motorcycle gang
2 DARK CAROUSEL...youths rob carousel operator, flee its "animals"
3 WOLVERTON STATION...coffee magnate slips into werewolf England
4 BY THE SILVER WATER OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN...children with awful parents find dead lake monster
5 FAUN...jerk in Maine finds portal to fantasy world, uses it to hunt its creatures
6 LATE RETURNS...dude gets a library bookmobile job, dead people visit him
7 ALL I CARE ABOUT IS YOU...teenage girl in a dystopian future with present-day angst, add robot to mix
8 THUMBPRINT...military woman comes home from scandal-ridden Iraqi detention center, what goes around...
9 THE DEVIL ON THE STAIRCASE...in Italy of the past, a red door on a long staircase leads to hell....
10 TWITTERING FROM THE CIRCUS OF THE DEAD...teenage girl tweets family visit to isolated gross-out circus...
11 MUMS...McVeigh-like separatist dad fights mom for son, story heavily involves plants...
12 IN THE TALL GRASS (with Stephen King)...out west, a couple walk into the tall roadside grass to rescue crying boy, big mistake...
13 YOU ARE RELEASED...on a jet plane to Boston the passengers are progressively notified of an international crisis...

All the stories were good, but also pretty disturbing, which is what you usually get with this type of fiction...so you've been warned...

Quote of the Week...from Elizabeth Loftus

Just because someone thinks they remember something in detail, with confidence and with emotion, does not mean that it actually happened, ..False memories have these characteristics, too.
                                                                     ---Elizabeth Loftus

Elizabeth Lofton is a respected cognitive psychologist specializing in the study of memory.  She is especially knowledgeable in the area regarding eyewitness testimony and how various factors can distort someone's memory of past events while they themselves fully believe in their recollections.  With this "Me Too" movement arising recently with people...mostly women...recalling...sometimes from decades earlier...their experiences of sexual abuse at the hands of usually affluent and famous men, this is an important field to examine.  Of course, anyone who had been paying attention to the news last year knows of the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing, when she claimed he tried to sexually assault her upstairs at a party some 35 years earlier.  I'm not here to suggest that hers or any specific allegations from others are true or false...come on, how would I know anyway...but rather I want to steer the topic of false memory to my own experiences, for which I do claim some authority...

A year before she passed away, someone close and dear to me in my family made certain statements that I knew were absolutely untrue about the way things were at a past time during which I was 5-6 years old...just to be sure it wasn't me who was imagining things I consulted with another family member who confirmed my memory.  The only reason I can fathom for her misrepresenting our past is that her new "memories" fit in better with the narrative that she had adopted about her own life...a week ago on this blog I discussed this idea recently of folks believing falsities for the sake of preserving their own cherished worldviews.  I also had more than one unsettling experience with an old friend going way back to elementary school when I would bring up something random that I remember him being involved with and he would flatly deny any memory of it...very disturbing.  I think that these two dear people weren't the only ones who unconsciously either manufactured false memories of their own pasts or simply denied to themselves parts of it...I think this cuts across our society, and Dr. Loftus would probably concur.  The question I have to pose myself is how pervasive are false memories among people in general and have they infected my own recollections of my past?

Elizabeth Loftus has been a critic of what has been called the "recovered memory movement", which involved adults...sometimes under hypnotism...coming up with "memories" of being abused as children.  The hysteria in the early 1990s about childhood satanic ritual abuse that destroyed the lives of some of the accused parents was a symptom of this...I'm glad somebody rose up to denounce this biased and agenda-driven process.  Nobody should be subject to automatically having their life ruined by another who, out of the blue, starts pointing their finger at them and falsely accusing them...even with all sincerity...of some horrible outrage from years gone by. Still, narrative-driven individuals, without the assistance of anybody else, can come up with their own false memories and wreak all sorts of havoc...after all, they're obviously not lying, right?  That was the problem with Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh: our system of law depends on and respects eyewitness testimony...but how do we distinguish between a real account of events and an honestly-held false memory?  I initially held that Kavanaugh's confirmation vote should have been delayed until a full-blown FBI investigation was held, but the witness's lack of recall of the event's specific time and place...as opposed to her detailed description of the alleged attack...most likely meant that such an inquiry would have been fruitless. I'm not saying that the accuser in this case wasn't ultimately correct with her recall, but rather given the lack of corroboration how should society properly react to the charges and protect the accused who, as an old friend from high school pointed out to me in a comment, is supposed to be held innocent until proven guilty?

One important guard against false memory is the simple acknowledgement that it can sometimes happen, and that sometimes it comes about...albeit unconsciously...as a positive response to an agenda or narrative...

Needless Obsession over College Football Playoff Rankings

As if they didn't have better things to talk about, I am tired of hearing on the sports radio and television programs how this major college football team should be in the top four playoff-eligible positions for the 2019 championship and that team shouldn't.  Undefeated LSU, Ohio State, and defending champion Clemson are usually agreed upon for the top three slots as things stand right now...it's the final one that's causing so much needless (in my opinion) commotion.  Alabama lost 46-41 to LSU this past Saturday for their only defeat of the year and the Crimson Tide are almost always taken for granted to be in the playoff picture every year.  But Georgia, with one loss as well, has crept above them to take the number four position, with Nick Saban's team sliding to number five, temporarily out of the playoffs.  But look, behind them are the Pac-12 Conference's Oregon and Utah, each with one loss, and the Big Ten's Minnesota, which has run the table so far.  And poor Baylor, leading the Big-12 Conference with a 9-0 overall record, is wondering why they're not getting any respect. As far as I'm concerned, it's too early to start grumbling about who's in and who's out of the playoffs: we still have another couple of weeks left in the regular season and then the conference playoffs to sort things out.  In the SEC LSU will face Georgia in the championship game...whether the Tigers win or lose that game they'll probably still go to the playoffs while the Bulldogs will advance if they win it...but only if they get past Auburn in their game this weekend, not a done deal by any stretch.  Ohio State will face Minnesota for the Big Ten championship...the winner's "in" the playoffs while the loser's "out".  And Clemson shouldn't have any trouble mowing over any remaining opposition in their relatively weak Atlantic Coast Conference this year. So we're left...assuming that the involved teams win their upcoming games in which they're strong favorites...with either three or four of the playoff positions filled: LSU, Clemson, Big-Ten-winner, and Georgia-or-another-school.  If LSU beats Georgia, that leaves an opening for either Alabama or the Pac-12 champion to sneak into that fourth spot.  And if Baylor stays undefeated to the end...they're playing one-loss Oklahoma (with their own argument for playoff consideration) this Saturday... they certainly have a major claim to that final spot as well. At this juncture, though, it's just all speculation, and those critical of Georgia being ahead of Alabama right now don't seem to understand that today's rankings mean little in light of what's to come in the four weeks ahead of us: besides, the Crimson Tide have to play Auburn two weeks after Georgia deals with them...

Weekly Short Stories: 1953 Science Fiction, Part 3

Here are my reactions to the next four science fiction short stories featured in the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 15 (1953).  I like them all, but Imposter was brilliant and introduced me to the fantastic fiction of Philip K. Dick...

IMPOSTER by Philip K. Dick
This story was adapted to film a few years ago but I never watched it...what would be the point since I already know how it ends and believe that they couldn't possibly improve on the original written story.  In the middle of an interstellar war between Earth and an alien force from Alpha Centauri, an engineer working on a weapon that might turn the war's fortunes in favor of our home planet one day suddenly finds himself accused of being an enemy robot designed to exactly replace his original human self and that it would be programmed to think of itself as being that man (and not the robot "imposter"). It all throws into question whether we're really the people we think we are...Philip K. Dick liked to play around with his readers' minds like this...

THE WORLD WELL LOST by Theodore Sturgeon
I saw a movie titled Giant a few years ago...it featured Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean, starting out about a romance triangle set in oil-drilling Texas.  But the movie's direction ended up abruptly changing to an entirely different theme, one that involved civil rights and bigoty. The World Well Lost is similar in that it begins with a two-man crew in an interstellar craft returning two captive fugitives to their home world but its theme and ultimate message drastically shift to commentary about a different kind of prejudice that still strongly persists today but was almost taboo to discuss back when Sturgeon wrote about it, and in a very sensitive and sympathetic manner.  Read it and find out what it is...

A BAD DAY FOR SALES by Fritz Leiber
It is sometime in the near future and Robie the talking robot entertains the Time Square, New York crowd while hawking and selling candy, soda, booze, and other goodies on behalf of the corporate interests that built and employs "him"...just place the coins in the proper slot to get your stuff.  It all seems to be going well until Armageddon arrives in the form of a nuclear bomb exploding over the city...see how stalwart public hero Robie responds in this incredibly cynical story...

COMMON TIME by James Blish
On a faster-than-light spaceship going to Alpha Centauri and back, the third attempt after the first two mysteriously disappeared, Garrard, the mission's solo astronaut, suddenly awakes to time frozen still...or at least moving very, very slowly.  Knowing that this wasn't a predicted possible phenomenon, he has to think quickly to save his own life...and continues to have extraordinary experiences with time.  As for what he finally encounters at Alpha Centauri, read it yourself to find out.  Oh, do you know of the late Carl Sagan's novel Contact, which came out in 1985 and was made into the movie starring Jodie Foster?  What happened to Foster's character in the "great beyond" bears a marked similarity to Garrard's experiences. I wonder whether Sagan unconsciously picked up on this James Blish story when writing his own...I guess we'll never know...

Next week I conclude my look back at short science fiction from 1953...

Cool Weather, Distance Running, and the 72 Dolphins Break Out the Champagne

While I'm seeing reports about some severe winter weather going on up north, in Gainesville it's become downright pleasant with much cooler temperatures...and it looks to remain so at least through this coming weekend, with some rain today and then later on in the week.  Wednesday's predicted high, at this writing, is only 60 degrees, and the highs on Saturday and Sunday won't pass 70 if the current forecasts hold.  And the lows are to be in the 40s...love it!

I'm sitting here right now in this Starbucks looking to my right, out the front window, to the electricity station across NW 43rd Street with all its transformers and wiring...and the asphalt walking path in front of it.  I plan to be running down it in a couple of weeks or so, as part of an experiment I'm undertaking as to whether it is feasible for me to run and finish a 26.2-mile marathon in the near future.  This weekend, with this great cool and pleasant weather descending on us in northern Florida, I'm going to try for a 16.5 mile run, extending my existing course by 3.2 miles by going up and down NW 37th Street and through one of its subdivisions.  Then we'll see where I'm at, and if all things are still "go" then I'll extend my course further in later weeks by going north down that path on 43rd...

Last night while enjoying Veteran's Day off from work...God bless our veterans for all they've done and sacrificed for us...I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Monday Night Football game on ESPN between then-undefeated San Francisco and Seattle, "my" team for a number of years in the National Conference.  I'm totally sold on Pete Carroll as a great coach and love seeing him so animated on the sidelines...I wasn't disappointed with this game, which went back and forth with spectacular plays from both teams on both offense and defense. It went to overtime and the Seahawks won it with a field goal, 27-24...ending the 49ers' unbeaten record and ensuring for another year that no NFL team other than the 1972 Miami Dolphins would run the table throughout the regular season and playoffs.  Now I know that the Dolphins from that year annually uncork the champagne and drink to the preservation of their unique status in football history after the last undefeated team finally loses...I'll pretend this iced coffee I'm drinking is champagne and raise my cup...cheers!