Just Finished Reading The City by Dean Koontz

The City is a 2014 novel written by Dean Koontz, more known for horror/suspense stories dominated by deranged killers.  Although suspense abounds here as well, along with the presence of murderous villains, this book deals more with the life of its protagonist, Jonah Kirk, a 9-10 year- old black boy growing up in New York City...specifically Manhattan...during 1966-67 when protests against the Vietnam War abounded and bombs started going off. Told from the vantage point of Jonah as a 57-year-old he recounts how he discovered he had a musical talent for playing piano and picking up tunes from just hearing them...he's taken after his grandfather Teddy, a renowned player in his own right.  And Jonah's mother (his father abandoned the two) completes the family's musical bent as a talented singer.  Add to the mix Mister Yoshioka, a neighbor with sad memories of himself and his family in a World War II Japanese internment camp, Malcolm, a talented horn player about Jonah's age living across the street, and Malcom's pretty and wise older sister Amalia, and Jonah seems to have a pretty good life...except that this IS a Dean Koontz novel and you just know a lot is going to go down.  Aside from fears that Jonah's father will kidnap him, a mysterious woman Pearl, calling herself "The Spirit of the City", has warned Jonah through his dreams about a couple of vicious criminals...he inadvertently reveals his presence to them and is consequently a target, along with his family and friends.  What are the bad guys up to...at least we know Jonah will survive intact up to the present.  But do we really know that...after all, this IS a Dean Koontz novel.  I enjoyed The City as a welcome departure in tone from other books by Koontz and appreciated the author placing in relationship characters of different races and ethnicities across multiple generations, showing through many of them a vision of how people should get along with one another.  It's also a story of good vs. evil and Koontz, like his contemporary Stephen King, is a bit of a moralist with his writing...but also like King isn't overbearing about it.  And I loved all the popular music references, too. Two thumbs up from me for The City...

Weekly Short Stories: 1977 Science Fiction, Part 2

Here are two more of my reviews of science fiction short stories appearing in the anthology The 1978 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and featuring his picks for the best from 1977.  In that year I started attending the University of Florida here in Gainesville.  Aside from academic life and a culture of partying, the big crazes at this time were tennis and disco dancing/music.  The John Travolta movie and Bee Gees album Saturday Night Fever were the rage and my dormitory's offering of disco lessons was filled to the brim with eager residents (but not me).  Likewise, the tennis courts just across the street from my dorm room seemed to be perpetually occupied with players (but not me) noisily hitting the ball back and forth, day and night. Kind of a weird time, looking back on it now, was 1977.  And here's my feedback from a couple of that kooky year's stories...   

PARTICLE THEORY by Edward Bryant

A highly knowledgeable science writer with deep connections in that field finds himself both struck with prostate cancer as well as witness to an inexplicable chain of supernovas happening in quick succession in the night sky. His dreams do not portend well, but he manages to live his life out on both tracks, trying to save himself from his own highly personal doom while helpless to affect the larger impending disaster.  I have to admit that I didn't quite get this story, although I liked how the author talked quite a bit about subatomic physics and the cause of novas...

THE TASTE OF THE DISH AND THE SAVOR OF THE DAY by John Brunner

This story pokes fun at the gourmet culture while posing the question: What are you willing to give up in order to attain immortality? The narrator, a sci-fi writer visiting Paris for a convention of his trade, meets up with a man, called the Baron, who is attending the funeral of a distant aunt.  The Baron is one of those unapologetic gourmets and shows it out on the town.  A year later the two get together again...but the Baron refuses to touch the food or drink the great wine.  They go to his home where Gregoire, a relative of that deceased aunt and now the Baron's cook, prepares a special dish for the Baron (who quickly eats it) and narrator, who is taken by the food's extremely attractive aroma and taste.  What follows goes down that pathway regarding immortality, this time through a special concoction known only to one individual.  I liked the story for its humor and humanity...  

Next week there will be more discussion on science fiction short stories from 1977...

Game of the Week: War (Cards)

 

When I was growing up, we had our family games...one of them was a card game we called "Battle"...later on I found out that, to the world in general, it was "War".  Not a game of skill, each side is dealt out of the 52-card deck until it's spent...then they each put out a card from top of their own pile and the largest value wins all cards (Ace is high card), to be placed face up on their discard pile. The game is played until one side runs out of cards. If the two cards placed are the same, then a "war" (or battle in our version) ensues, with each player laying three of their cards face down and placing the next one face up...the highest value wins all the cards in play.  War can go on and on and on...in one game as a kid I recorded 93 battles.  Melissa and I were playing it a few days ago and it looked headed the same way...finally we agreed to play 15 more minutes and whoever had the most cards at that point won (it was Melissa, naturally).  I've read that some dude said that War wasn't really a game since it involved no decision-making on the part of the player.  But all the games I watch on TV, no matter which sport, ARE games as well with me playing no volitional role (other than to switch the channel)...I'm just playing the vicarious role of the spectator.  Still, I think the next time I pull out the card deck we'll be playing Rummy instead (which Melissa also usually wins)... 

Marking Time by Age or Calendar Year

Normally, I don't mark time by my age and birthdays...but yesterday's was a big deal because I turned 65, which seems to be a major dividing line in how my society separates people, depending on what side of that magic number they're on.  Aside from all the questions about signing up for the various Medicare plans, there has recently been a major distinction regarding vaccinations between those below or beyond the 65 year threshold.  Even before the Covid vaccine first came out several months ago, there was a special, fortified flu vaccine designed to protect the elderly...starting with those age 65 or above.  Now the booster shots for Covid are currently unavailable to the general population age 64 and below...a group to which I belonged just two days ago.  I plan to get both of these shots in the next few days, although I don't enjoy being stuck with a needle anymore than anyone else.  As for my opening comment about marking time, after I began elementary school I was primarily noting the passage of years by either my grade or the calendar year, not so much my age...although attaining 18 was significant as I was then eligible to vote.  As for the military draft, I miraculously managed to fall within the exact time period of President Nixon abolishing it and Jimmy Carter reinstituting registration...so my age didn't mean as much with that as it would were I just a few years older and concerned about being drafted for Vietnam. I now wonder whether I'm going to start thinking more of my physical age as a year marker now that I've passed the 65-year hurdle...

Great Old TV Episodes...from the Beverly Hillbillies

DUKE BECOMES A FATHER was from Season 1 of the Beverly Hillbillies CBS comedy series, first shown in April, 1963.  There are two interwoven story lines.  Mademoiselle Denise is a beautiful young French woman who is visiting Beverly Hills with her purebred dog and snobby Mrs. Drysdale thinks her own poodle is the father of the new litter...but as the episode's title reveals, it's Jed's bloodhound Duke with the honors.  Meanwhile, Mlle. Denise has entranced Jed and since she cannot speak English, he enlists the aid of Miss Hathaway to give him a lesson speaking French. It's his expectation that after one hour he will be able to completely understand his new-found love that reminded me of how so many apps and language learning courses nowadays make similar claims when becoming fluent in another tongue is much more involved and usually necessitates a degree of immersion in its home environment, surrounded by its speakers.  Jed sits and stumbles through Miss Hathaway's language lesson and, perplexed when it is almost over with very little progress made, says "Them last five minutes must be doozies!".  Granny and Jethro both shine in this episode, and Jed makes his recurring comment about his cousin Pearl's son, "One of these days I'm gonna have to have a l-o-o-n-g talk with that boy!"... 

Congrats to 100-Game Winner Tampa Bay Rays

Congratulations to the 2021 Tampa Bay Rays baseball team for not only winning the highly competitive American League East Division for the second straight year and qualifying for the postseason playoffs for the third straight, but also for amassing the very difficult milestone of winning 100 games in a season...they did this with today's 12-2 rout over the New York Yankees on the road.  The Yanks, Boston, Toronto, and Seattle are currently in an extremely tight finishing run to see which two of them will make the playoffs...looks like it will come down to tomorrow, the final day of the regular season.  Managed by Kevin Cash, this year's Rays feature strengths in every category: consistent hitting, power hitters, great fielding, and excellent pitching...both by starters and the bullpen.  And Tampa Bay has also been exceptionally well in the second half of the season in 2021 while establishing themselves as a clutch, come-from behind team in those late innings.  It's not a team of superstars, but I feel that some future greats will come from this outfit...keep your eyes open for Brandon Lowe (39 home runs, including 3 today), Randy Arozarena (team batting average leader), Austin Meadows (RBI leader), Mike 
Zunino (32 homers), Wander Franco (20-year-old rookie hitting sensation), Shane McClanahan (starting pitcher) and Andrew Kittredge (reliever).  The Rays, who made it to the World Series last year only to be bested by the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games, begin their playoff run at home this Thursday against the American League wildcard winner.  Unfortunately, since I'm returning to my afternoon/evening job this Monday, I won't be able to watch the baseball playoffs except for the weekend games...but the Tampa Bay Rays have certainly been entertaining for me thus far...  

Quote of the Week...from Bob Dylan

Take care of all your memories.  For you cannot relive them.              ---Bob Dylan

There's a corollary verse to the Bard of Our Time's above quote, this one by another noted popular lyricist: Bruce Springsteen, from his 1985 hit song: "Well, time slips away and leaves you nothing, mister, but boring stories of Glory Days".  I bring that second quote up to reinforce Dylan's conclusions: if you're stuck in your adolescent past...even to the point where you pigeonhole the same people with whom you went to school, based on decades-old relationships and refuse to recognize that we all change over the years, then you are suffering from a delusional way of thinking.  You indeed cannot relive your memories...but you can treasure them while keeping your feet planted in the present moment.  Speaking for my own experiences back then in those "non-glory days" of junior and senior high school, I felt a bit victimized during that period by many classmates and teachers around me, both groups then largely (but not exclusively) in my mind consisting of bullies, fickle "friends", and snobs.  Yet I also knew fellow students (but sadly too few teachers) who displayed genuine character and integrity and who took an active interest in others...regardless of popularity...and patiently listened to them, with the implicit belief that everyone had their own story to tell.  At the time, as possibly the most introverted individual of my era, the thought of actively seeking out peers and displaying a respectful interest in their lives and opinions never occurred to me...it was a form of behavior that eventually arose into my consciousness with maturity and is still something I'm working on after all this time.  But it does no good now reliving those old memories, since what happened to me...as well as my response to it all...belongs to my distant youth.  Still, I can draw the appropriate lessons from those experiences and apply them now...with the circle of  family, friends and acquaintances present in my ongoing life.  I graduated from high school in 1974, and no doubt a fifty-year reunion will be in the works before long.  But without discounting the value and significance of my old schoolmates and their lives, I wonder whether attending such a get-together wouldn't be beside the point...those relationships (or lack of relationship) were based on who I was and who they were, and I'm not the same person anymore and neither are they.  Only if I am allowed to play that "active listener" role around these fellow travelers in life from my distant past would going there be worthwhile, and this would involve who I am now, not as I was fifty years ago...which as I see it might be a difficult obstacle to surmount if enough folks attending there are stuck trying to relive their memories.  There's yet a third saying here to draw upon: "Let bygones be bygones"...

My September 2021 Running and Walking Report

During the month of September I was still recovering from my July 15th open-heart surgery to replace a defective heart valve and repair an aortic aneurysm. Once sternal precautions, which limited my upper body and arm movements, ended on September 9th, my physical therapist began a regimen of stretching exercises for me designed to strengthen and restore my previous range of movements.  But before that, I was encouraged to walk...in September I recorded some 60 miles covered, and the figure is probably considerably higher if you include mileage I didn't count.  I also ran some on a limited basis, recognizing that it may take a bit longer to match my pre-operation level in that activity. I've also resumed using daily my home's exercise bike as well as practicing my therapist's earlier prescribed workout for my legs and lower body. Starting next month I plan to record and report on my running mileage, longest single run, and days run as I had in previous months. But for now, I'll just report that I'm encouraged and progress is being made.  As for future races, I feel it's a little too early to look at specific upcoming events as I'm focused on listening to my body as I run and allowing myself ample opportunity to progress at a rate that is safe and lasting.  But so far things are looking good...

Weekly Short Stories: 1977 Science Fiction, Part 1

Today I begin looking at the first three science fiction short stories appearing in the anthology The 1978 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and publishing his picks for the best in the genre in 1977.  That year marked my first residence in Gainesville. and I'm still here 44 years later...guess I like the place.  Jimmy Carter began his presidential term with many ambitious promises but quickly got bogged down with his inability to effectively deal with the power structure in Congress despite his own party controlling both houses by wide margins.  And the New York Yankees won their first World Series in fifteen years, highlighted by Reggie Jackson hitting three home runs in the last game...I watched it sitting in the TV room on UF's Reitz Student Union first floor.  And here are my reactions to those first three tales...

IN THE HALL OF THE MARTIAN KINGS by John Varley

The first human expedition on Mars lands and sets up their living quarters. All is going well until one night it explodes, killing the only crew members able to pilot their ship back.  The disaster is caused by spiked indigenous organisms growing up from the ground and piercing the tent's walls, depressurizing it.  In spite of the tragedy and being hopelessly stranded with food, water and oxygen soon running out, the remaining crew steadfastly holds on...and makes a game-changing discovery about that Martian life form and others they notice growing around themselves...  

A TIME TO LIVE by Joe Haldeman

A circular time travel story reminiscent of the old "which came first, the chicken or the egg" question, an obscure, unpromising young man inexplicably keeps coming across lucky breaks in his life to eventually become the wealthiest and most powerful man on Earth.  After his death following an extended lifetime he is sent out into deep space to spend eternity...only that plan is interrupted when an advanced alien race intercepts his ship and revives him.  For then on, the story becomes circular and subtly hints that the random forces we see around us shaping our fates aren't necessarily as random as they may seem...

THE HOUSE OF COMPASSIONATE SHARERS by Michael Bishop

A man suffering what would normally be fatal injuries in a mining explosion on a distant planet is brought back to life with much advanced machinery, metals and material replacing a large part of his physical body...although his brain is still intact he is a cyborg in our common parlance.  He also finds himself drawn to machines and averse and repelled by humans and the messiness and smells associated with biology.  With his marriage thus threatened, his wife has him sent to a special place (the story's title) where he launches on a difficult pathway of self-discovery...and where his own destiny lies...

Next week I will continue looking at the year 1977 in the world of short science fiction...

Game of the Week: The Lottery

Whenever I think of the lottery, I think of three things: Shirley Jackson's short horror story with that title, the All in the Family episode when Edith buys what turns out to be the winning lottery ticket for her next-door neighbor Louise, and the Florida Lottery, begun in 1988 after being approved by a wide margin in the 1986 elections.  After my state's fledgling lottery instituted the Lotto with its promise of millions to the winner(s) each week, I would play along and occasionally put down a dollar for a ticket...I always used the same six numbers.  But never more than a buck at a time, nor with any real expectation of winning...it was more of a social "activity" I did with my family back then.  Not long thereafter, I lost interest and it's been many years since I ever played it.  But although the Florida Lottery has the altruistic aim of funding my state's public education system from its proceeds, it is still gambling and as such has infected many with its promises of easy money.  I don't know whether there is a gene that makes one susceptible to becoming a compulsive gambler, but sadly there was one in my family as I grew up and I quickly learned my lesson about gambling's downside.  One of the first Twilight Zone episodes I ever saw, The Fever, has a man reluctantly visiting Las Vegas with his wife.  Feeling morally superior to the "vice" of gambling he sees everywhere, he nevertheless succumbs to the temptation of the slot machine when coins pour out from it the first time he plays.  From that moment onward he is hooked...continually losing at that machine but afraid to leave it for fear that the next player would win "his" jackpot.  That's how I think a lot of habitual lottery players see their weekly ventures...the one week they skip playing just might be the week their numbers come in, and wouldn't that be tragic if they missed out.  When I'm at a convenience store or Publix at the service counter and someone in front of me in line lays down a large stash of dough on lottery tickets, part of me wants to wheel that person around and shout sense into them.  But no, it's all going for education, right?

Professor Benjamin's "Great" Math Course

A few days ago my sister Anita sent me one of the Great Courses, a series put out by The Teaching Company and featuring courses of all kinds of academic subjects.  You can check out many of them from the public library...the one I received is called The Joy of Mathematics and consists of 24 lessons on 4 DVDs along with an accompanying book duplicating each lesson.  The lecturer is Arthur T. Benjamin, a professor of mathematics at Harvey Mudd College (or at least he was in 2007 when this course came out) as well as being a renowned popularizer of this often arcane and difficult field.  I've gone through the first six lessons and have thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Benjamin's enthusiasm, sense of humor and clarity as he explains various mathematical concepts...I do a lesson a day.  Below is a list of the course's lessons, omitting the words "The Joy of" that precede each of them:

1 Math-The Big Picture

2 Numbers

3 Primes

4 Counting

5 Fibonacci Numbers

6 Algebra

7 Higher Algebra

8 Algebra Made Visual

9 "9"

10 Proofs

11 Geometry

12 Pi

13 Trigonometry

14 The Imaginary Number i

15 The Number e

16 Infinity

17 Infinite Series

18 Differential Calculus

19 Approximating with Calculus

20 Integral Calculus

21 Pascal's Triangle

22 Probability

23 Mathematical Games

24 Mathematical Magic

In the lessons I've covered so far, Dr. Benjamin has woven the discovery of patterns and their establishment by mathematical proofs through the material and has made much clearer concepts that I only fleetingly understood when taking various math courses earlier in school.  He also demonstrates some pretty nifty shortcuts...and then explains why they work. This "Great" course is definitely worth going back to, and it makes me want to check out other courses in their catalogue...

Great Old TV Episodes...from Bewitched

DRIVING IS THE ONLY WAY TO FLY was a first-season episode in the long-running comedy series Bewitched, first airing in March, 1965.  My family regularly watched this series, which at least in the first few years really clicked on a comedic level, with many great acting performances.  Darrin and Samantha Stevens (played by Dick York and Elizabeth Montgomery) are the young married couple...Samantha reveals to Darrin in the first episode that she is a witch and Darrin in turn insists that she squelch all the nose-twitching magic power that she is accustomed to using.  In this episode, since Samantha isn't supposed to fly, she insists to her hubby the need for her to learn how to drive.  Enrolling in a driving school, she gets the world's most nervous driving instructor, Harold Harold...portrayed by Paul Lynde, who would later play the hilarious role of Samantha's jokester Uncle Arthur.  Samantha's mother Endora (Agnes Moorehead), who makes no secret of her scorn for Darrin, makes a brief appearance in this one.  But some of the other funny characters are missing, like Darrin's fickle boss Larry Tate (David White) and the Stevens' nosy next-door neighbor Alice Kravitz (Alice Pearce).  But Lynde was hilarious, and I always discerned a sweet spirit that Samantha radiated throughout the series.  As a kid I always looked forward to the special episodes that featured either Lynde as Uncle Arthur or Marion Lorne as Aunt Clara, whose spells invariably backfired.  Later on, Alice Pearce died from cancer and while her character endured with another actress (Sandra Gould) it just wasn't the same.  And Dick York, whose comedic portrayal of Darrin was a classic in the history of comedy on TV, had to bow out due to back trouble, ably replaced by Dick Sargent...but it wasn't the same, either.  By the time Bewitched ended in 1972 I don't think anyone in my family was watching it anymore.  But the first few seasons...including this great episode from the first one...were special...

Tackling Still More Jigsaw Puzzles at Home

 

During my recent recovery at home I've gone through a slew of jigsaw puzzles...the nearby Walmart has an excellent selection.  I just open the box, spread the pieces out on the dining room table, and walk up to the puzzle at various random moments during the day.  I'm about to begin a new one...if you have a free surface to work on, why not try this fun activity yourself?  Besides simply being fun, it also helps the mind stay sharp, I imagine more than popping some over-the-counter pill.  Each puzzle presents its own challenges, and I enjoy tackling them while inviting anyone around to share in their construction. I've completed quite a few...the above three represent my three favorites of late.  By the way, I was surprised by a recent contestant on the game show Wheel of Fortune who said that she engaged in jigsaw puzzle competitions and that there was actually a world championship in it. If that's your schtick then go for it....for me, I like doing them for their own sake... 

Quote of the Week...from Padme Amidala in Star Wars

So this is how liberty dies...with thunderous applause.                         ---Padme Amidala

Padme Amidala, portrayed by Natalie Portman, was the love of Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequel series...as well as the mother to Luke and Leia of the original trilogy.  First serving as queen of the planet Naboo and then its senator for the Republic, she makes the above comment as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine declares the reorganization of the Republic into the First Galactic Empire.  And yes, the senators present are thunderous in their approval of his decree.  But you don't need to watch a fantasy sci-fi flick to see an ominous, similar development happening in our own country.  A sitting president, after losing a close election, refuses to concede and tries to subvert the transference of power to the winner.  Failing in that, he pressures numerous state legislatures controlled by his own party (and himself) to enact laws that give these partisan bodies control over certifying election results...a rubber-stamp procedure if their own side wins but a means to use phony fraud allegations to overturn the people's will at the polls should the other prevail. In a nation with an electorate that keeps itself well-informed and can discern demagoguery, the upcoming off-year elections in 2022 should be a referendum on that former president's nefarious actions with his party suffering as a consequence.  Instead, I'm afraid that the historical pattern will hold and one party's voters will tend to sit out the elections while the other...the one this demagogue controls largely because of the unquestioning adulation of his "base"...will regain control of both the House and Senate, putting our liberty to choose our own leaders in peril by rewarding that dictator wannabe and assuring that the 2024 presidential election may well mark the end of our democracy as we know it.  And millions upon millions of Americans, themselves full of all kinds of patriotic banter and symbols...as well as kooky ideas and conspiracy theories...will be there at the forefront thunderously applauding its demise.  I hope I'm wrong in all this, but from where I see it things don't look promising...

Weather Finally Shifts Here, with Lower Humidity

Today marks a big change in our weather in north-central Florida.  For many days there has been a blanket of very high humidity here...partially caused by the remnants of  tropical storm Nicholas.  Combined with high summer temperatures, it has been stifling to walk or even just stand outside for any length of time.  But glory be, just as the official seasons changed from summer to fall, a cold front swept down through our area this morning and we are currently blessed with dry, temperate conditions.  And although the temperatures are expected once again to rise over the next few days, that blasted extreme mugginess should be gone...at least through the end of September.  Who knows, maybe I'll actually be able to go outside tonight and finally do some serious star-gazing under clear sides...

Weekly Short Stories: 1976 Science Fiction, Part 4

Today I finish looking at science fiction short stories from the year 1976 as they appeared in the book Donald A. Wollheim Presents The 1977 Annual World's Best SF, presenting the editor's choices from the previous year.  '76 marked the last full year I would listen regularly to talk radio (until 1997, that is, more about that another day), which hadn't yet been taken over and ruined by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and his imitators.  Personalities like Jean Shepherd (who wrote A Christmas Story), Barry Farber (a more traditional conservative), and Long John Nebel (a forerunner of Art Bell and George Noory's radio show dealing with off-beat topics) were on the air then, and I would listen to them for hours each week.  As for movies, the one that stands out in my memory was the TV drama Sybil, in which a struggling young woman (Sally Field) discovers through the aid of  her therapist (Joanne Woodward) that she has some fifteen different personalities.  It revived Field's acting career and introduced Brad Davis, who would star two years later in the excellent film Midnight Express.  And now, here are my reactions to those final three stories...

MY BOAT by Joanna Russ

Racial injustice and prejudice are underlying tones in this tale of a shy 15-year-old girl, Cecelia, who is the first black student in 1952 at a Long Island school.  The narrator, Jim, reminisces about his friendship with her, along with another boy, Alan, who was socially isolated in his own way.  But Cecelia has a special hidden talent to go to another world, and she's trying to decide whom to invite with her.  Reminded me a little of the Twilight Zone episode The Bewitching Pool...

HOUSTON, HOUSTON, DO YOU READ? by James Tiptree, Jr. 

An exploratory three-man crew traveling in their cramped little spaceship around the sun in our general era (late twentieth century, that is) finds itself disabled after damage from a solar flare.  But miraculously another ship is out there, ready to rescue them.  The question is, can they be trusted to be who they say they are?  The rescuers seem to be almost all women, and their ship is way beyond the men's time in technology...turns out the solar explorers had slipped into the future.  But how far, and how has humanity progressed after a terrible pandemic had decimated the population by interfering with human reproduction?  What happens to the men...and why...give a chilling lesson on human nature, both about the rescued and the rescuers...

I SEE YOU by Damon Knight

An inventor has constructed a portable "viewer" that allows the user not only to see anywhere he or she desires...in the house across the street or another planet...but also select the time of observation, from anytime in the past up to the present moment.  The implications of such a device universally in people's hands gets a vigorous examination in this tale that, to me, partially portends the advancement of microcomputer technology and the Internet, fused together in the ubiquitous smartphones of today.  Much food for thought here, especially the question of what happens when people realize that nothing they ever say and do (or said and did) is private and that everything is open to public scrutiny...

Next week I begin looking at the year 1977 in the realm of short science fiction...

Game of the Week: Croquet

A few days ago I read Agatha Christie's first mystery novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, from 1921.  Set in a rural English estate, a passing reference is made to a croquet game...bringing to my mind a flood of memories of playing it with my family during my childhood in the 1960s.  After reading up on it, I discovered that there are different versions of croquet...including one with flamingos for mallets, hedgehogs for balls, and living card-men for wickets, if you happen to be a Lewis Carroll fan.  But here in America, we seem to have agreed on one form: the nine-wicket game.  Each player starts off in front of the "home" stake with their own mallet and colored wooden ball, the goal being to make a complete circuit of the course by putting the ball through each wicket (a thick rectangular wire stuck into the ground) in the right sequence and direction while hitting the stakes at the ends of the course before anyone else.  I remember getting pretty good at it...and then we all sadly seemed to outgrow croquet.  But I'd like to revive interest in it, at least at my home.  The only problem is that with this heavy rain we've been having and almost unbearable humidity, the ground in my backyard is thoroughly saturated with water and is sloshy to walk through.  It's bad enough to try mowing the lawn through it...at least during my recovery I'm happy to let others tackle that...but in this mushy state it is impossible to attempt a croquet game.  Still, I entertain hopes for a dryer future and plan on obtaining a croquet set soon...

Just Finished Reading First Three Nancy Drew Books

While recuperating at home from my surgery, I've had some extra time on my hands...why not go back and read an old childhood series, one I've never covered?  Nancy Drew Mystery Stories quickly came to mind, so I read the first three books, originally published in the early 1930s but revised about 30 years later, reportedly changing Nancy's age from 16 to 18 and having her less assertive and rebellious and more compliant and conforming...now always ready to help out with the dishes or housecleaning.  There were also black characters in the earlier editions that the author wrote with racial stereotypes common in that era...the revised editions "solved" that by simply eliminating the black characters!  And I've read that in some revised editions, the plot was so drastically changed that there was little resemblance to the originals.  Still, I thought I'd cross over the gender stereotypes and be a guy reading supposedly "girl" books...heck, I read all of my sister's Trixie Beldon and Donna Parker books when I was a kid.  By the way the listed author of the Nancy Drew books is Carolyn Keene, but they were really written by an assortment of writers over the years, starting with Edward Stratemeyer and his kin...  

In the first book, The Secret of the Old Clock, a wealthy, recently-deceased benefactor apparently has left his considerable fortune all to one snooty and undeserving family while several different people Nancy befriends claim that he had promised them a share of his inheritance.  Now the search is on for the second will that, hopefully, will set things straight.  Unfortunately, the book's title as well as the cover picture tend to give away the story...  

The second book, The Hidden Staircase, has Nancy investigating a supposedly haunted house that an unscrupulous real estate speculator is inexplicably trying to buy up...Nancy's friend Helen enlists her help as her aunt and great-grandmother live there and are understandably unsettled by the frights.  The disappearance of her father, apparently kidnapped, adds urgency to her efforts to find him and solve the mystery.  Guess what? The solution involves a hidden staircase...who would have imagined...

In the third book, The Bungalow Mystery, Nancy and her friend Helen find themselves in dire peril after a raging storm sinks their boat in the middle of a lake...only to be rescued by Laura, an orphaned teenager.  Her mother only died recently and had arranged for a nearby couple to be her guardians...but when they arrive they only seem interested in locking Laura in her room and trying to take from her the valuable jewelry her mother left behind.  Meanwhile, Nancy's lawyer father Carson has enlisted her help in an embezzlement probe...I pretty much had this one figured out early on...

As you would expect children's novels to be, Nancy Drew is written in short, simple sentences with plain language...ah, how refreshing after reading so much "adult" writing that seems to be deliberately designed to be difficult to understand.  Still, I think I'll leave Nancy for a while and tackle one of those "big boy" books...

Great Old TV Episodes...from The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

THE MAD, MAD TEA PARTY AFFAIR was first aired in February, 1965...by that time (I was eight) its series, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., had easily become my favorite TV show, with me writing down the names of each episode as I saw them and enjoying the whole secret agent ambience of it...which clearly in retrospect was a takeoff on the successful James Bond movie series.  This particular episode takes place almost entirely within U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law and Enforcement) in a high-rise building, presumably New York City.  Protagonist agents Napoleon Solo (played by Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) find themselves at headquarters confronted with two challenging problems: an eccentric elderly man has infiltrated the supposedly secure building while THRUSH, the criminal enemy organization of U.N.C.L.E.,  has sent someone to plant a bomb there to kill those attending a crucial meeting.  But what makes this episode so memorable to me happened before it was ever aired: at the conclusion of each episode they would show short previews for the following week's show...for this one they showed an airplane headed straight at a skyscraper building, from the viewpoint of the building itself!  That image always stuck in my mind and quickly came to the forefront when 9/11 happened more than 36 years later.  No, it wasn't a passenger jet...just a model plane launched from a nearby park by that earlier-mentioned gentleman: but he did make the creepy comment that it was on a suicide mission.  Although that episode had some serious suspense and stakes as to its outcome, it also had many moments of lightheartedness...and I recommend it to this day if they ever get around to showing this very entertaining old series on television again...

Gainesville Attorneys Vie for Title of Biggest UF Gator Fan

As I sit here watching the University of Florida football team behind Alabama late in their game...although performing much better than I had expected...I wondered how some competing Gainesville attorneys have been spending their time for the last three hours.  One firm's ad has its senior lawyer sitting with his son, the junior partner, in an empty Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (UF's home field) looking up to the sky like visionaries to show how devoted they are to their Gator idols.  Then there's the commercial featuring another local lawyer who indirectly puts down the first firm and claims that HE was the true Gator...not only was he a Florida grad but also played on their football team, by golly!  And the other evening I saw yet a third firm claiming that THEY bleed Orange and Blue.  Presumably, potential clients of these attorneys will see how attached these dudes are to the University and as a result will rush to employ their services.  As for me, they might as well have come out with their favorite color or rock band, for all the meaning that conveys.  If I need to seek legal counsel, I'm going to want to know facts about their competence, integrity, and track record of attaining successful judgments...not irrelevant tripe like this.  And what if I have a beef with the University of Florida...the last person I would want to represent me in court is someone who has professional and/or deeply emotional ties to that school. So you're a football jock from your youth and want to use that to hawk your trade...that approach makes ME more likely to reject you, not run to you.  I feel the same about other ex-jocks, Gators or not, who trade on their athletic pasts to promote their respective business ventures or endorsements.  As for the Gainesville attorneys, I wonder whether any more will join the contest for Biggest Gator Fan...