My #6 All-Time Favorite Song: Firewood by Regina Spektor

FIREWOOD, by Regina Spektor, is my #6 all-time favorite song, but I wonder whether you've even heard of it.  It's from her 2012 album What We Saw from the Cheap Seats.  I have never heard it played on the radio, although it should have been a huge number one hit for several weeks. As a child Regina immigrated with her family in the 1980s to America from Soviet Russia and is a classically-trained pianist...that instrument dominates her recordings, including this masterpiece.  Firewood's lyrics seemed aimed at an ailing soul, in a hospital and thought to be dying...but what kind of affliction is it, mental or physical?  "Rise from your cold hospital bed, you're not dying...everyone knows you're going to live, so you might as well start trying".  This song has always been a treasure for me to listen to, but it's also been painful as it is the sort of song that can remind listeners of people they personally know in their own lives who have gone through really tough, tough times...possibly themselves.  It's yet another slow-moving song on my top ten list...and not the last Regina Spektor piece on it, either: another one ranks higher!  To me, Regina Spektor is far and away my favorite solo musical artist of this century and has seven studio albums so far...of course I own them all and am impatiently awaiting her next one.  The melody to Firewood is the kind of listening experience that a you might find yourself doing a double take on...there's something timeless to it, as if it had always been out there instead of only for the past eight years...

Trump's Presence to be Felt Beyond the Election and Biden's Inauguration

The rumor going around is that President Trump will be staging more mass public rallies in the next few weeks as he legally contests Joe Biden's close victory over him in the 2020 presidential election.  To me, not a Trump supporter...although I do support his stances on certain specific issues...this makes eminently good sense as he has always built up a great deal of popular support with these gatherings and obviously loves getting all the adoring, unquestioning attention in front of his many idolizers. And don't be mistaken, Donald J. Trump is indeed an IDOL to tens of millions of Americans, while I firmly acknowledge that many, many who voted for him do not share in their exaltation of this ordinary human being with his own peculiar, individual mix of faults and virtues. Of course these rallies, should they happen, would all be super-spreader events compounding the worst spike in COVID-19 we've yet experienced, but our current president seems unconcerned. I have a prediction: after he leaves office, Donald Trump will continue to hold these types of rallies, constantly insulting President Biden and his administration and running down his efforts as president while continuing his Tweetstorms full of conspiracy theories and false accusations.  Add to that continuing trips to the golf course and you have much of what he already was doing as president...albeit with his finger no longer on the nuclear button and no more authority to issue executive decrees, nominate officials and judges, sign or veto legislation...or hold up military aid to a besieged ally until it produces damaging material on his main political opponent.  But just because Trump will be out of the White House, don't expect any letup in the divisive rhetoric among our politicians: I'm confident that he wants to maintain tight control over the Republican Party and its elected officials in Washington, including the Senate...after all, a thumbs-down by him on anyone he perceives as personally disloyal can just as easily spell doom for their reelection chances as if he were still in office.  And looking at 2024, who knows, he may just want to jump back into it again...or even play the easier role of "kingmaker" by sitting in the background and picking his chosen GOP candidate.  Another possibility is that large segments of the population will simply deny that Trump is no longer president, just as they now deny climate change and the COVID pandemic...talk about alternate realities! Of course, all this is speculation...but if you think that voting Trump out of office equates to getting rid of him or that his conservative supporters for the past five years will now return in floods to their ideological principles and forsake this creepy, blind hero-worship, I don't think you're being very realistic.  I'm not writing this because I've returned to following politics closely but because I don't want anyone out there to be terribly surprised when what I've laid out becomes the new reality.  If you want to allow the media to manipulate you into feeling offense against the "bad guys" in the political world as they fight your "good guys", no matter which side you think "bad" or "good", then it's all on you...you don't have to listen to that crap and it just might behoove you to make an effort to see things for a change from the other guy's perspective.  For myself, I tune in to the half-hour CBS or ABC evening news and sometimes the local late-night news show at 11:  I'm letting the rest of it all ride, recognizing that much of the media...both social and broadcasting...has a vested interest in heightening division and passions among users, viewers and listeners: if you're into all that, then good luck with your outrage, now and in the future.  As was the case with this particular article, I'll state my political opinions from time to time while trying to space them apart more...

Four Astronauts Slated for Space Launch from Cape Canaveral Sunday Evening

Tomorrow evening (Sunday)  Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, Michael Hopkins, and Soichi Noguchi (pictured from left to right)...the last from Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency...are scheduled to take off from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida in SpaceX's Crew Dragon craft, at the top of the Falcon 9 rocket as it represents the second manned flight launched from United States soil this year, after the earlier successful May 30th launch which returned August 2nd.  Like that mission, this one will transport the astronauts to the International Space Station...the plan is for them to stay there until their return to Earth in the spring.  The launch was delayed from October 31st due to engine issues within the Falcon 9 rocket, and then again from tonight's planned launch because of concerns that high winds would interfere with booster rocket recovery...tomorrow's launch time is set for 7:27 pm Eastern Time. I'm going to try to see it from my backyard here in northern Gainesville if the weather permits.  I am gratified that America is gearing back up again for space exploration with astronauts and look forward to future missions to the moon and Mars.  Hopefully, the incoming Biden administration won't mess with our space objectives and allow a continuity of missions that has been sorely lacking in the past whenever one president left office and another stepped in.  And what about that Space Force begun under Trump? We'll see...

The above picture of the four astronauts on this flight is a public domain release by NASA that appeared in the pertinent Wikipedia article...

Quote of the Week...from Alex Trebek

I think what makes 'Jeopardy!' special is that, among all the quiz and game shows out there, ours tends to encourage learning.                                               ---Alex Trebek

Alex Trebek, the host of the wonderful Jeopardy! game show since it was brought back in 1984, sadly died last Sunday of pancreatic cancer, a condition that he had shared with his faithful viewing audience long before...still, his passing doesn't make it any easier.  I had watched the original Jeopardy! series (1964-75) while growing up through childhood and my teen years...Art Fleming was its very capable host.  On both runs, Jeopardy! was structured the same, with three contestants playing two rounds with different subject categories in each of them and a final, single answer round: "answer", because this quiz show phrases its questions in the form of answers, to which the correct response is a question... I always had a problem with that.  Say the "answer" on the screen is "Its capital is Caracas".  The correct response is "What is Venezuela?", but if I walked up to someone and asked the same question, that answer wouldn't help me at all.  Still, it has been fun trying to beat the ultra-smart and knowledgeable contestants to the correct answer.  And even if the category at hand is on a subject with which I am totally unfamiliar, the clues sometimes will steer me to get the "question" right.  I don't watch Jeopardy! every day because of my schedule, but if college football permits I can view it Saturday evenings at 7:30 on my local Channel 4 station.  It has been clear to me that Jeopardy! was a labor of love for Alex Trebek, and my sympathies and wishes are for his family and friends.  As for his above quote, the wide gamut of topics discussed on the show demonstrate...as well or better than any encyclopedia can...interesting areas that people can involve themselves in, including science, technology, music, literature, history, geography, language, mathematics...it goes on and on.  I hope that this show will always stay true to its high standards and never sink into appealing to vulgarity as do shows like Family Feud and Match Game...

Eta Striking Through North Central Florida Today

I have an app on my phone called Wordscapes, which is a scrambled word game.  One of the three-letter word combinations is a-e-t, from which you can form tea, ate, eat...and the Greek letter eta (small η, capital Η).  And Eta, incidentally, is the name of the current tropical system (Greek letters being used for names after exhausting the traditional list) that had been situated in the eastern Gulf of Mexico...although its bands have been affecting us in north central Florida for the last five days with rain and gusty winds.  Because of a cold front descending from the northwest, Tuesday evening the hotshot weather forecasters changed their projection to having it hit today around Cedar Key and as a strong tropical storm and then make a beeline for my Gainesville area.  Tuesday night's forecast had Eta slowing down until possibly even Saturday after passing over us in northern Florida, but subsequent notifications have had it entering the Atlantic Thursday night. Also, they noted on The Weather Channel yesterday that it seems surrounding dry air has been entering the storm and weakening it...for a while early yesterday it was classified as a weak hurricane. I haven't been too thrilled with the weather we've been experiencing lately, but it could have been a lot worse: just ask the folks in south Florida and the Tampa area. Eta, which earlier had developed into a Class 4 hurricane with 150 mph winds and struck eastern Nicaragua before emerging into the Gulf out of Honduras, then wound its way...first eastward and then northward...through Cuba.  Then it brushed (and flooded) south Florida and swung back into the Gulf of Mexico...and here we are now, stuck with this Greek freak of a storm.  I hear there's another one, named Theta naturally, brewing out in the eastern Atlantic while a new area of tropical disturbance is in the Caribbean where Eta once began its twisted journey, following its original path toward Central America: let's all hope its trajectory is straighter than Eta's..

As I mentioned, it's currently 9 in the morning and Eta's center is slightly northwest of Gainesville as it heads toward Jacksonville at 13 mph.  The rain and winds at this time are nothing for concern, and I expect conditions to have improved before I set off for work in three hours...    

Weekly Short Stories: 1965 Science Fiction, Part 2

Here are my reactions to four more short stories from the year 1965 as they appeared in the retrospective anthology The World's Best Science Fiction: 1966, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr.  Within the sci-fi genre, these tales span a range of topics from time travel to interstellar war and espionage to a repressive dystopian future to the rules for respectful engagement with extraterrestrials.  I found each one significant in its own way...although I admit to being tired of time travel stories...

OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS by Clifford Simak

In 1896 an elderly couple live on their remote farm as two children, seemingly from nowhere, come up the lane and introduce themselves.  It's the identity of the children and their mission to these kindly people that may determine the world's fate.  Another one of those frustrating (to me) time travel stories that tend to handcuff people living in the past to a set fate, as opposed to them being allowed to exert their own free will in determining the future.  Still, I always love reading the tender way that Simak treated his characters...

PLANET OF FORGETTING by James H. Schmitz

There's another one of those interstellar wars going on with this story as the protagonist is sent on a mission to recover and send home to Earth a secret file detailing the enemy's strengths, weakness, and intentions.  Along the way he finds himself wandering around in an amnesiac haze on an unknown world where strange beasts are around him...gradually he recovers his memory as the pursuers from the other side close in on him.  And then he solves the mystery of his memory loss.  Reminds me of the the Gregory Peck movies Spellbound and Mirage...

"REPENT, HARLEQUIN!" SAID THE TICKTOCKMAN by Harlan Ellison

In a dystopian future when rigid punctuality is enforced with a shortened life span being the punishment, there is a free spirit, the "Harlequin", who deliberately goes about with his pranks designed to upset the extremely delicate and elaborate schedules that run the society.  The chief enforcer of the time rules, the "Ticktockman", is none too happy as he searches down his adversary.  I remember first reading this tale seated on a jet plane taking off down the runway...I think it was at Atlanta or Asheville in 2006...

THE DECISION MAKERS by Joseph Green

As humanity explores other star systems and settles their habitable planets in the future, there is a need for someone with the title of Practical Philosopher...having the ability to discern whether different new lifeforms encountered are intelligent.  If they are, the planet is to be left alone for them to develop for themselves without human interference.  On one planet, such an individual finds himself up against the established human economic interests there as he discovers that intelligence may transcend a certain indigenous otter-like animal's individual abilities.  I liked how this story presented a future in which humanity demonstrated respect for other life as they reached out into the cosmos while also acknowledging how economic expedience can cause some to compromise their values...

Next week: more about science fiction short stories from 1965...

Just Finished Reading Matilda by Roald Dahl

Ever since that Jeopardy! episode a few weeks ago that devoted an entire category to British children's books author Roald Dahl, I've been exploring his collected works, believing then that I was unfamiliar with anything he had done.  Sure, he wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, from which the early 70s movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was made, and I'd heard of his James and the Giant Peach.  But I'd never seen a movie or read a book of his...until the other night when I got out my own DVD of the 1967 James Bond thriller You Only Live Twice and discovered that Dahl had written the screenplay!  Well, I felt it was time for me to read another of his books, so I picked his 1988 novel Matilda...I wasn't disappointed.  Once again we have a Dahl story in which a child...Matilda, of course...is the heroic protagonist and a mixture of adults, some of whom are sweet and compassionate and some of whom are beyond nasty in their meanness. Matilda is a four-year old girl, a genius who has taught herself to read as well as a great deal of math.  She befriends the local librarian, who has introduced her to great books in literature and has already read many.  But her negligent parents belittle her and refuse to recognize her talents...when she finally starts out in school she discovers friends, a compassionate teacher...and a thoroughly abusive principal.  What distinguishes Matilda in this tale is her spunk and refusal to take any abuse lying down...here is someone who knows how to even the score!  It was all very entertaining...sadly, Dahl passed away back in 1990.  To me, he and Neil Gaiman are my two top favorite British contemporary authors...I plan to read all of their works.  In 1996 the film version of Matilda came out, but I haven't seen it or nor do I plan to...I don't want my own visualizations of Dahl's story and characters to become supplanted by an altered version...

My #7 All-Time Favorite Song: Building a Mystery by Sarah McLachlan

Number 7 on my list of all-time favorite songs is BUILDING A MYSTERY by Sarah McLachlan.  A singles hit in 1997, I grew to love it while listening in early 1998 to my local Gainesville alternative rock station, then on 97.7, and which played the song in its regular rotation back then.  Besides McLachlan's extraordinarily beautiful singing, this slow-moving song speaks of a woman's love interest whose fanatical sense of independence and wonder entrances her as well...while she bluntly acknowledges his glaring faults.  And aren't we all in the end deeply flawed individuals with our own special stories to tell?  Aside from the universal wisdom embedded within the lyrics...with a little unnecessary profanity thrown in for good measure...I got deeply within the "mystery" angle to it as the singer's boyfriend explores the frontiers of reality and beyond.  Sarah's singing to him...but she's singing to each of us as well.  It's a great love song, but not of a blind, possessive love but rather a more discerning, mature kind in which both share in their mutual affection and attraction while respecting the sometimes stark differences between them.  Sarah McLachlan has a couple of other songs that I liked a lot: Sweet Surrender which, like Building a Mystery, is from her excellent 1997 album Surfacing, and Fallen, from her 2003 Afterglow album.  I probably should explore this wonderfully talented artist's collected works at some time in the near future...

Just Finished Reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a prequel novel by Suzanne Collins, released earlier this year, to her wildly popular The Hunger Games series.  It focuses on the life of that series' chief antagonist, Panem president Coriolanus Snow, who duels with heroine Katniss Everdeen throughout the three novels.  I read these books earlier and was greatly impressed by Collins' writing...the adaptation to film with Jennifer Lawrence playing Katniss and Donald Sutherland as President Snow was excellent, perfectly cast and expertly directed.  So much so, it would seem, that while reading this prequel novel I was continually finding myself picturing Snow as a young Sutherland when he appeared as surgeon Hawkeye Pierce in the original 1970 M.A.S.H. movie.  As prequels go, one must have a special motivation to read them (or watch them, as was the case with the three Stars Wars prequel movies) since you pretty much know how they're going to end: with the beginning of the "first" book (or movie).  Having attached myself to the characters and Collins' writing style, it was easy for me to take the plunge...

Reading prequels is similar to rereading a novel in that you pretty much know how it's going to end and which characters will make it that far.  Also, certain themes prevalent in the series are more deeply examined in prequels, for example Snow's fascination with roses, the origin of the mockingjay, and how the Games began following the Rebellion. Following young Coriolanus Snow as he makes his life choices along the way, some demonstrating his courage and intelligence and others his ambition and treacherous self-centeredness, it's easy to see developing within him the later ruthless, cunning President Snow of the Hunger Games books and movies.  Still, I didn't like it nearly as much as the original three novels...if you're a completist and a big Hunger Games fan, you probably will enjoy it more than I did...for that matter, I never did go that much for any of the extra Harry Potter spinoffs, either...

Deliberately Avoided Election Results As Long As Possible

I related to Melissa a few days ago that I was going to see how long I could go without knowing the 2020 election results, be they the presidential race, the numerous US Senate races, or any of the other races or referenda.  Tuesday evening I was at work and I heard nobody speak of any results, and I carefully avoided the TV in the breakroom as well as my smartphone's newsfeed and social media.  After work at home, Melissa...who kept up with the results herself...made it easy for me to sidestep the news channels on TV and held off on discussing the election.  Wednesday morning I posted a link to that day's blog article on Facebook and Twitter using my desktop computer...I brought out a piece of cardboard to shield the screen from my eyes, avoiding the news-infected Microsoft Edge home screen and then anything that two social media sites might reveal.  Then I went on my local public library's website to put some items on hold.  I then embarked on my regular routines for the day as usual, first stopping at my nearby Dunkin' Donuts for an iced coffee...listening to loud classical music on my earphones to avoid anyone around talking about it...and then headed off to my afternoon/evening work shift.  There I was again careful to avoid that breakroom, which doubtless would have somebody on the television talking about the election. I knew that eventually I'd want to end my information "fast" if only because of Melissa, but I did string it out through most of Wednesday, with her bringing me up to date on the counting...everything was still up in the air, although I was confirmed in my prediction that the election would be a lot closer than the opinion polls indicated.  After that I tried to avoid the news but not like before...you can go nuts listening to that stuff nonstop.  And here we are today, five days later...I don't know about you, but I have absolutely no control on what's going on now with the election and where it will lead, so I'm instead going to attend myself to matters that I can actually affect...

I'd tried this kind of game before of delaying knowing what happened in a big news story, but always with major sporting events like the January, 1984 Super Bowl between the Los Angeles Raiders and Washington Redskins and the 2008 national championship college football game between Florida and Oklahoma.   I think what got me to do it this time were the repeated warnings from the media that it would possibly take days following the election before a winner for the presidential contest could be determined...so why should I get myself all flustered over this drawn-out drama?  After all, we've still got the same leaders until January, whether they won or lost.  I remember back in 2000, weeks after that year's election between George W. Bush and Al Gore brought on a protracted struggle and recount in Florida.  I was in the Checkers drive-thru on Archer Road and the attendant, a friend from church, interested in my take on Bush vs. Gore asked me through the window, "So who's the President?".  Without missing a beat I replied, "Why, Bill Clinton, of course!" Twenty years later, I feel I've given myself some peace of mind by escaping all the political hullabaloo, if only for a short period.  And I've got to get that Microsoft news feed off my computer's home screen...as a matter of fact, I'm thinking of permanently restricting my national news intake to the traditional early evening news on one of the alphabet networks... 

Quote of the Week...from Bob Newhart

The only way to survive is to have a sense of humor.                        Bob Newhart

Bob Newhart, the great television comedian known for his two popular sit-coms The Bob Newhart Show (1972-78) and Newhart (1982-90), is definitely a survivor...he's 91 and still pluggin' along.  However, if you put his name into a search engine you're bound to come up with death reports...he supposedly just died either on September 21st or October 30th, depending on the website.  From what I can tell, this is a hoax and the soft-spoken humorist is still alive and well...which brings me to the above quote.  I suppose you really are a survivor if you outlive your own death notices!  My favorite Bob Newhart Show episode...and there were many I liked as I regularly watched it back in the 70s on Saturday evenings following Mary Tyler Moore...was the Thanksgiving episode from 1975 in which Emily leaves on a trip and Bob is left spending the holiday with others, including his highly neurotic patient Carlin, in his apartment as the turkey gets burnt in the oven and Bob orders Chinese while everyone ends up getting inebriated.  One element of his series that I loved was how a simple joke or turn of phrase from early on would come back later on and get amplified and humorously twisted...this particular episode was a great example, with knock-knock jokes taken to their funniest.  Let's all hope that Mr. Newhart got a good laugh at his "demise" and will continue enjoying his life to the fullest.  By the way, there's something on the internet called WikiObits that produces makeshift obituaries of famous people even if they're still alive.  They did one for Newhart and I tested it out by doing a search on Beyoncé...their false obit of her stated that she died possibly of a fireworks accident.  This all illustrates something I've hit upon before: if you Google something, it will respond by providing you what it "thinks" you want, not necessarily what is true...

Some Interesting Newspaper Articles from October, 1956

Here are four articles that caught my attention as I was skimming through the archives of The Miami News, a mainline, established newspaper, covering the dates October 4th through 6th, 1956...64 years ago.  It's interesting to see how people saw the future back then, as well as being treated to many assumptions they made about the ways society should be structured.  With each article I first wrote the main point of interest to me, followed by my own commentary.  Yes, these were real articles...

ENSLAVEMENT OF MEN AS ROBOTS PREDICTED...JUST PLUG 'EM IN (10/4/56)

In the article: Curtiss R. Schafer, project engineer for the Norden-Ketay Corp., of Milford Conn., said research in the science of "biocontrol" has shown that the conversion of human beings into electronically-controlled robots is possible.

Yes, I believe Schafer's revelation that "whole nations might be enslaved by tiny radios implanted into the brains of infants to prevent them from thinking as individuals" is feasible: I saw, with my own eyes, the archvillain Plankton do this sort of thing in the first SpongeBob SquarePants movie!  But seriously, aren't a lot of people in our own day and age voluntarily allowing themselves to be enslaved by their own smartphones and social media? This was a United Press article...

RADICAL CARS STILL FAR IN FUTURE...STEERING LEVERS AND ATOMIC ENGINES COMING (10/4/56)

In the article: According to F. C. Reith, vice-president of the Ford Motor Co. and general manager of the Mercury division, "Gas turbine engines are 5 to 10 years away, while atom-powered cars are at least 15 to 20 years in the future."

Although gas turbine technology has been extensively used with other forms of transportation, it hasn't yet taken a strong hold with passenger cars...although lately research and development is going on concerning its use with hybrid electric cars.  As for atomic cars...ha, ha, ha...this shows the overly rosy assessment folks were giving this energy source at the time: after all, the first running nuclear reactor began operations just the previous year.  Mike Davis, Miami News staff, wrote the article...

DUMB GUYS HELD BETTER AS DRIVERS (10/5/56)

In the article: Quoting Arthur L. Berlin, chairman of the driver education program in San Leandro's (California) schools: "The man who drives while thinking of his business is a poor driver, while the man with low mental ability won't be thinking about much of anything."

This is the kind of silly article I would have expected from a rag like the National Enquirer, not a reputable, serious newspaper like the Miami News...yet it was released under the auspices of the Associated Press. The article's premise is asinine: just because someone's thought processes function at a "lower" level than another's doesn't mean that they can't be just as distracted by their own less-significant thoughts while driving...

STOP THE SHOUTS FOR EQUAL RIGHTS...A WOMAN'S VOICE (10/6/56)

In the article: From Dorothy Roe's syndicated women's advice column, agreeing with Florence Anderson, a Chicago mechanical design engineer: For instance, if you want a raise...don't start complaining about how you can't afford a new pair of nylons, have to go without lunches and haven't had your hair done in three weeks...Instead tell [the boss] how fortunate you are to have such a brilliant and understanding employer, who understands the necessity of keeping up appearances in the business world. Tell him how you'd hate to work for an old fogy who didn't appreciate the importance of such things as hairdos and nylons.  

From today's more enlightened vantage point about equal rights for women, this article seems overly patriarchal and patronizing.  But it was serious advice when it was written and would have been uncontroversial within the accepted norms of the time.  I expect to see more articles like this one from the old newspapers... 

Well, I guess it's time for me to go back to the archives for some more treasures...

Weekly Short Stories: 1965 Science Fiction, Part 1

Today I begin reviewing science fiction short stories from the year 1965 as they appear in the anthology World's Best Science Fiction 1966, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr and presenting their selections from the previous year.  For me, still living in the Boulevard Heights subdivision of West Hollywood, Florida...which that year would be annexed into the city of Hollywood...1965 marked my transition from the third grade at Boulevard Heights Elementary School (two easy blocks from my home) to the fourth at Nova Blanche Forman Elementary, five miles away and requiring daily bus trips...this brought a group of unforgettable kids into my life like Martin, Mike, Jim and Greg.  In 1965 President Johnson would often interrupt regular TV prime time shows to give nationwide addresses, usually beginning with "My fellow Americans" in his thick Texan drawl while discussing various issues, among them his decision to escalate fighting in Vietnam, and I was totally into listening to the pop/rock music being played, via my trusty little transistor radio, on 560/WQAM "Tiger Radio".  My favorite TV show by far this year was The Man from U.N.C.L.E....I had each episode's title memorized.  Pet-wise, Tiger the cat reigned supreme at our home.  But enough of the memories, here are my reactions to the book's first four tales...

SUNJAMMER by Arthur C. Clarke

Imagine a yachting regatta with majestic boats out on the open sea racing for bragging rights and the prize purse...now picture it in space and the boats are ships with wide, ultra-thin metallic sails to capture the radiation emitted from the sun (aka solar wind) to power them onward and you have the premise for this thoughtful story about one such event.  Seven ships, each designed differently and from a different country, vie to be the first to pass the moon as they leave Earth's orbit. This story's a great lesson in science as Clarke teaches the reader a lot about what goes on inside the sun and how its radiation bursts can pose a threat to space travelers, as well as how physics would dictate the motions of such "sailing" ships in space...

CALLING DR. CLOCKWORK by Ron Goulart

This story is a brutal indictment of socialized medicine as society in the future is divided between private health and that provided for "free"...the Urban Free Hospitals are dilapidated, neglected and use run-down robots as physicians.  Arnold Vesper, his own medical care supposedly assured with private insurance, is visiting an ailing friend of his father's in one of those "hospitals" and gets himself inextricably sucked into the system.  It's all exaggerated satire that makes the author's point much too vividly, although I strongly believe that providing affordable health care to all is an integral part of what any civilized society should strive for...

BECALMED IN HELL by Larry Niven

Howard...this story's narrator...and Eric are the two crewman on a scientific mission with their spaceship deep into hot, poisonous Venus' atmosphere...the extremely dangerous conditions leave little room on their mission for technical problems, but of course one is detected...and the two have difficulty finding the source of the breakdown as time is running out on them.  Not only was the unique working relationship between the two intriguing to me, but this might be the earliest science fiction I've read about Venus that described our "sister" planet in realistic terms instead of as the commonly-depicted fantasy world with treacherous oceans and steamy jungles teeming with lots of scary creatures...

APARTNESS by Vernor Vinge

In Vinge's post-apocalyptic depiction of future Earth following a nuclear holocaust that virtually wiped out life in the Northern Hemisphere, it is left to the remaining southern nations to pick up the pieces and go on.  An Australian anthropologist is on an Argentine ship...Buenos Aires is now the great world power...as it explores a section off the Antarctic coastland in search of a lost floating island that the Argentine ruler's astrologers predict will bring great joy and wealth to the regime.  Knowing that this is all nonsense, the anthropologist has his own agenda, revealed with the discovery of a heretofore unknown settlement of humans on Antarctica.  What follows bears out the story's title and steers it into an ingeniously different direction: brilliant and ahead of its time...

Next week: more sci-fi short fiction from 1965 reviewed...

On This 2020 Presidential Election Day

So here we find ourselves again, four years later as Donald Trump goes into Election Day as an underdog against his Democratic opponent for president.  I'm inclined to agree with progressive activist Michael Moore that Trump voters are underreported in the public opinion polls, this year as they were four years ago, and that this election between him and Joe Biden will be closer than most polls currently indicate.  If that's so, then once again...for the sixth straight presidential election...it will all come down to the uninformed, pain-in-the-neck undecided voters who will...as they have since 2000...allow late-hour "news" stories and phony campaign ads to sway their votes in one direction or the other and decide our collective fate for the next four years.  My vote was cast weeks ago and I had wanted to steer mostly clear of the no-holds-barred political warfare going on in the media, but the sad truth is that no matter which channel I watched on TV I was barraged with those horrendously annoying and often patently cynical campaign ads.  Tonight and beyond they'll be tabulating and releasing the results: my sincere, deepest hope is that no matter which candidate you supported, you haven't invested so much emotionally into the campaign and the candidates that the results devastate you if they don't go your way.  For me, I have fulfilled my responsibility as an individual American citizen by informing myself and casting my single vote...on this runaway train where the most easily manipulated voters routinely end up electing our national leaders, I can only brace myself for what's to come, for better or for worse: I suggest you do likewise. Regardless who wins, I suspect it's gonna get "pretty ugly" out there for the next eleven weeks until Inauguration Day, 2021...I want no part of it...

My #8 All-Time Favorite Song: For My Lady by the Moody Blues

My #8 favorite song, from my recently compiled list of 500 all-time personal favorites, is FOR MY LADY by the Moody Blues.  It comes off their 1972 album Seventh Sojourn, which features singles hits Isn't Life Strange (#422 on my list) and Just a Singer (in a Rock n' Roll Band).  For My Lady, which is the album's contribution by my favorite "Moody"...flutist Ray Thomas...was a common staple at the time on album rock radio, where it first captured my attention.  It has a seafaring, romantic theme to it and to me is one of the all-time greatest love songs...if not the greatest.  Thomas' flute contributes to the song's mystical, dreamy atmosphere as he sings "My boat sails stormy seas, battles oceans filled with tears.  At last my port's in view, now that I've discovered you."  From the first time I heard it I liked this piece and over the years have always placed it high among my all-time favorites.  Back in early 1972 I was in a generally introspective, philosophical frame of mind and this great song often played around in my head as I mused about this thing or that.  This list of my 500 all-time favorite songs has its share of Ray Thomas songs, with his Legend of a Mind (#26), Flying (#46) and Lazy Day (#60)...he also collaborated with bandmate John Lodge on Are You Sitting Comfortably (#105).  He is also responsible for the beautiful, haunting flute solo on the Moody Blues' famous song Nights in White Satin (#122)...I guess you can surmise that I'm a big fan of this band! Ray Thomas sadly passed away at age 76 on January 4th, 2018...he was a largely unrecognized giant in the music industry and his works should endure for a long, long time...

Just Finished Reading House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig

House of Salt and Sorrows is a 2019 young adult fantasy/horror/romance novel by Erin A. Craig...if the combination of those three genres within a single story sounds strange, please keep in mind that many of our famous old fairy tales do the same thing.  And this novel is a fairy tale in its own right as a family of twelve sisters finds itself in a nightmare as they begin to die through mishaps or illness, until when the narrative begins they are only left with eight, ranging from late teens to little girls.  Annaleigh, the second oldest survivor, is the story's protagonist as she tries to unravel the mystery of the most recent death of one of her sisters.  The family, headed by a widowed wealthy shipping magnate who has remarried, lives on an island within a chain of islands on a fantasy world where humanity is in pretty much the same technological state as in other fantasy works like Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings.  The impression I got when I started it was that it was a mystery novel of sorts and that although in a fantasy setting the real world's parameters generally prevailed.  But as I read on, it became more and more clear that the author was prolifically adding magic, the paranormal...and ultimately supernatural mythological characters...into the mix.  To me as a reader I felt a little cheated as I was first presented with a situation and then the explanations at the end weren't remotely available to me until Craig decided to throw them into the story.  It also played with my sense of what was real and what wasn't...the reader needs to be able to have at least some anchor of reality to help navigate them through the book: it's a problem I also had with celebrated writer Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House.  But keep in mind that my subjective criticisms may not be the same as your own reactions, and you might really like this novel which seems to have met with widespread approval and enthusiasm.  In any event, I always appreciate a writer's efforts and I understand that Erin A. Craig is coming out with another book in 2021, which I intend to read...

My October 2020 Running Report

In October I ran for a total of 161 miles, putting in time on every day of the month.  My longest single run was for just 5 miles as I employed the strategy of shorter runs and multiple activities within the day.  I also walked quite a bit, something I plan to intentionally increase in emphasis.  Because of COVID-19 I see no races for myself anytime in the future...I knew some other places downstate were apparently hosting races but I didn't realize until today that my own Gainesville will be holding something on November 20th called the Cupcake Race, with 5K, 10K, and half-marathon events all to begin at 8 am.  It uses the Hawthorne Trail as a course and starts and ends from Boulware Springs Park on SE 15th Street. I'm trying to wrap my head around the logistics involved in bringing all these people together in one spot at the same time and then starting the race and with them all breathing heavily in each others' faces...sadly sounds like a super-spreader event tailor-made for pandemic deniers and herd immunity proponents.  No, if I run a half-marathon anytime in the next few months I think I'll just do it by myself and save the money and exposure danger. The other day the weather turned pleasantly cooler and drier...maybe if it lasts I'll see if I can't notch up the distances with my neighborhood runs.  In October I ran slowly and often...for November I see no reason to change...

Quote of the Week...from John Dewey

The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.  

                                                                         --John Dewey

The above quote from educator/philosopher John Dewey, which I picked up watching one of my Music Choice TV channels, brings into question what actually constitutes our own sense of identity.  I'm sure the dude has written a lot to back up his above quote, and you're welcome to delve into his rationales...I have my own reactions...

Back on September 15th I reviewed Dr. Ski Chilton's book The ReWired Brain, in which he claimed that simply thinking physically changes the neural pathways within our own brains and and thus alters ourselves, and repeating the same thoughts reinforces those changes.  Thinking is as much of a choice as "doing", and as such fits Dewey's criteria of choice of action. And since we are constantly thinking and doing, this naturally constantly changes us. One of my favorite Star Trek; the Next Generation episodes, titled Tapestry, has Captain Picard lamenting his earlier rowdy years in Star Fleet and a specific incident in which he jumped into a fight that caused him to lose his heart (it was replaced, naturally).  His regret prompted the alien character Q to intervene and give him a chance to go back in time and change the fight's outcome...the result showed that both good and bad experiences interweave within us to form our own individual tapestries: you can't go back and take something out without unraveling it all.  So yes, our minds and bodies do change as do our perceptions of our own selves. Still, I believe that there is within me a continual, unchanged core "self" around which all of these changes take place as my personality and character develop through my experiences and thoughts.  For example, when I am dreaming much of that "tapestry", and well as my ability to discern reality and critically reason things out, is fast asleep.  Yet I'm still there within that unconscious state, a core of me that is, my continuous "self", along with other residual elements of my personality.  I am an big advocate for people trying to improve themselves, but my interpretation is that in doing so they are creating more knowledge, character, abilities, and stronger and healthier bodies as the most immediate environment around that core being...

Unintentionally Funny '56 Newspaper Column about Henry Wallace, "The Prophet"

When I was a kid growing up in South Florida our daily newspaper was the Miami News, since my father worked down in Dade County (we lived in southern Broward) and felt more connected there.  Unfortunately, I would have preferred our own city paper, the Hollywood Sun-Tattler...but little kids often get no say in what they want.  Now I have this feature whereby I can read old newspapers off my computer screen...and since the Sun-Tattler isn't available I decided to make my father's preferred brand my own.  I went back to the day of my birth...October 3rd, 1956...to see what was going on in the world and in people's minds back then, as reflected on the pages of the Miami News Main Edition.  The World Series had just begun between the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees, the Cold War was going on strong, and Dwight Eisenhower was in a heated electoral campaign against Democrat Adlai Stevenson for a second term.  In the News' opinion section for that day I read a column by Ralph McGill that led off calling former Franklin Roosevelt's vice-president and 1948 independent presidential candidate Henry Wallace "The Prophet".  Why, it seems that the American economy, which dominated the world in that era, was flying high in early fall of '56 with record employment and only brighter prospects to come.  McGill then made a point of agreeing with Wallace's prediction of a four-day work week in the (then) near future, citing the fact that even Vice-President Nixon was on board with it...and then emphasized that one of the crucial tasks for the future was to educate the people as to how best spend all the oodles of leisure time they were going to be getting.  At this I just laughed and laughed and laughed some more...

There's a lot of irony here, some of it personal.  For one, I remember that in my early childhood my dad had a six-day work week as a letter carrier, not five as the 1956 McGill article claimed for the ongoing national standard.  Secondly, a few years ago my own employer posted jobs involving a four-day work week...but the shifts were ten hours long with the cumulative weekly total still at 40 hours.  I've heard over the years that in Europe conditions have generally improved for workers and that in many countries they have a lot more leisure time than us here in the USA.  Nowadays though, instead of one spouse being able to support the family on a single forty-hour, five-days-a-week job as used to be the case for middle class households, for many both spouses are not only working full time to keep things afloat but also often have extended hours, either through overtime or working at home.  Ralph McGill claimed back then that the wheel of time had turned, but oftentimes people get so stuck in their present situation that they cannot reasonably envision a future that departs in significant ways from it.  But it all makes interesting...and unintentionally funny...reading for me.  Now on to the next hilarious article from the past...

Weekly Short Stories: 1964 Science Fiction, Part 5

Here are my reactions to the final three stories in the anthology Robert Silverberg Presents The Great SF Stories (1964).  Of them, the second below was by far my favorite and, hey, turns out it's written by the guy who presented the book!  Starting next week I'll be switching to a different sci-fi short stories year's best anthology series that covers the years 1965-89...I'll deal with 1990-onward when I get there... 

THE LIFE HATER by Fred Saberhagen

Back on September 2nd I reviewed the 1963 Saberhagen short story Fortress Ship, which dealt with a fleet of automated warships from an unknown, probably extinct alien civilization from eons before that humans must combat to save their own planets and even Earth.  This particular story is another one with this theme as Carr, solo piloting his own ship and painfully suffering from terminal cancer, encounters one such ship and decides that dialogue with its AI controls is the only way to save himself.  A clever story leading the reader in one direction, until the final conversation takes place...

NEIGHBOR by Robert Silverberg

On a distant sparsely-settled planet far off in the future with human life extended to hundreds of years, a domineering man living with his family on their great land holdings fumes with hatred at his neighbor whose ugly home base is visible from his window.  The enmity between the two is mutual and has been going on for untold years and they have their own defenses, weapons and robot surrogates facing off against each other...only the planet's other residents have collectively kept open conflict from breaking out.  One day the neighbor asks for a truce and a meeting between the two...and the real reason for the vehement hatred then makes itself known.  A story with a clear allegorical meaning for us in the present real world on Earth...

FOUR BRANDS OF IMPOSSIBLE by Norman Kagan

Set a little into the future, a young mathematician/student continues his studies and discovers a movement to explore how to break through logical contradictions in that field.  The story rambles a bit too much for me as the institute pushing Project Round Square has its ultimate goal: sensory enervation, the opposite of sensory deprivation and designed to inject massive computer-generated input into the minds of volunteers.  The abject irrelevancy of huge sections of mathematics has always been a sticking point for me...this story goes into all that but I had a bit of trouble trying to make sense of both the protagonist and the author's trains of thought...I think the story was meant to be funny or satirical in some way...

Next I begin my look at science fiction short stories from the year 1965...