My January 2023 Running and Walking Report

In January '23 I continued running and walking on every day of the month, often jogging more than ten miles per day...although I did slightly strain my back toward the end of the month and had to reduce my efforts a bit.  I ran two races, the Depot Parkrun on New Year's Day and Florida Track Club Mary Andrews Half Marathon (in Hawthorne) on the 15th...that latter one started under sub-30 temperatures: click on the titles to read my recaps.  I had thought of trying the Newnan's Lake 15K at month's end, but as I said I had that back soreness and decided to forego it.  Besides, on February 11th, the Florida Track Club is holding a ten-mile event in Micanopy...I ran it last year and think it's a possible traditional annual run for me, especially since LifeSouth no longer holds the February Five Points Half Marathon here in Gainesville.  On February 4th, as I have written previously, a local beer company is staging a 4.2 mile race centered around its facility, Depot Park and the western end of the Hawthorne Trail...I'll need to get up early Saturday morning after getting off from work late Friday night for that one (as well as for the Micanopy race, for that matter).  I'm still trying to figure out which kind of shoes I should best wear for road running, which tends to jar my feet more and cause more aching.  Maybe with this coming "beer run" I'll check out my more padded Nike Air Monarchs, which I used to regularly employ for races around 2013-18.  As for walking, it's still the same pattern as for the past few months: lots of mileage that comes naturally in my workplace, which involves walking back and forth to numerous locations within the huge facility there.  My strategy in races is to start out with "old man steps", not trying to set any speed records but covering the distance as a primary goal...then, later on, I can ramp it up if it looks like I've "got the power" on that particular day.  That strategy, which I had abandoned in October's Tom Walker Memorial Half Marathon, served me well with this past one as I finished in 2 hours 34 minutes and won my age group somehow.  I'm 66 and not getting any younger, and although I want to run fast in the future I also am realistic and accept that, as long as I run, my finishes will tend to taper slower as I progress.  My fastest half marathon ever was 1 hour 50 minutes in March 2013...never going back there again...

Upcoming Blog Feature on Album Reviews

The other day on my Disney+ channel, I watched Mary McCartney's special If These Walls Could Sing, about Abbey Road Studios in London and its great history, including that, of course, of her father Paul's group the Beatles.  It made me consider how much I have missed by skipping over recorded albums from other groups and solo artists over the years.  So, I'm setting out early in 2023 to catch up on my album listening with various recording artists of the past 50-plus years.  I'm thinking of setting up another of my famous weekly blog features, this one going over various albums I hear and my favorite (and least favorite) tracks on them.  I don't know that I'll necessarily devote a whole article to reviewing each album, instead using a format like I do on Wednesdays when I discuss different short stories I've read.  Since I now have listening access to so much, this is a feasible project...who knows, maybe I'll come up with some new all-time favorite songs from this.  I also have some catching up to do with some of my favorite acts that are currently out there, like Kasabian, Metric, Gorillaz, Arcade Fire, Spoon and the Strokes, for example.  Let's see, how about doing this on Sundays?  Looking forward to it, now let's get listening...

Watching NFL Conference Championship Games Today

Today the National Football League decides who will face each other in the latest edition of the Super Bowl, to be played in a couple of weeks in Glendale, Arizona.  The Philadelphia Eagles, my favorite in the National Conference once Tampa Bay and Seattle were eliminated early on, advanced with a convincing 31-7 home win over the San Francisco 49ers.  Now it's Kansas City at home against last year's American Conference Champion (and Super Bowl loser) Cincinnati.  After Jacksonville lost to them last week, I'm rooting for the Chiefs to win it all, so naturally I'm favoring them over the Bengals tonight. Today's first game showed how injuries can completely change the complexion of a contest as the 49ers rookie star quarterback Brock Purdy suffered an elbow injury that removed him from much of the game and thoroughly hampered his ability to throw the football effectively when he did return.  But I don't think it would have altered the final result had he stayed healthy...Philadelphia was clearly the better team.  Jalen Hurts is an outstanding quarterback for the Eagles, but he's backed up by an equally excellent offense...and the defense was suffocating today.  Regardless of who wins between KC and Cincy this evening, I'd have to consider the Eagles as the Super Bowl favorites.  I'll root for them if the Bengals win and against them if the Chiefs prevail.  I happen to like both starting quarterbacks in the ongoing game, but once again injuries may be a big factor: in his last game, Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes strained his ankle and his movements may be more limited than usual against Cincinnati, whose quarterback Joe Burrow is perhaps the league's best right now.  Regardless of what happens between these two teams, I'm looking forward to the upcoming Super Bowl...the game, that is, not the pre-game hype or the often-ridiculous halftime show...

Looking Ahead to Upcoming Running Races in 2023

Ha-ha-ha, I had just told Melissa that I had decided to pass up on running tomorrow morning's Newnan's Lake 15K when I discovered that the dang thing was already held this morning!  No matter, more races are forthcoming, and I was recovering from a slight back strain anyway.  It all did inspire me to look on my dependable Running-in-the USA website to see what exactly was available in the upcoming months, and I thought of a nifty little goal for myself with race running. Every Saturday morning there is the free Depot Parkrun 5K...that covers almost any time I might feel like running that distance in an event...I can pick and choose whichever weeks I feel like running them (or NOT running them).  For longer races, I have decided to try and run at least one of those per month.  How can I accomplish this in 2023? First of all, the traditional Gainesville long-distance event of the Five Points marathon/half-marathon has been discontinued, so I'm happy that I was able to run the Florida Track Club's substitute race two weeks ago on 1/15...that takes care of January!  In February we have a 4.2-mile run sponsored by a local beer company on the 4th and the FTC Micanopy 10-miler on the 11th...check off this month for "mission accomplished" as well if I run one or both of them.  In mid-March, Melissa and I are on vacation and may spend some of the time out-of-state: maybe there's a possibility there. If not, on the 25th is the traditional Trail of Payne 10K that I have never run...maybe in 2023 I will.  On Saturday April 9 is the Run Your Buns Off marathon/half-marathon/10K on the same Hawthorne course, it seems, as the FTC race that I just ran.  And now we've come to May: in the Jennings State Forest to the NW of Middleburg they have a cool-sounding half-marathon trail race...intriguing.  And I discovered that off SR35 in southeastern Ocala is a monthly 10K run on Saturday mornings...bit of a drive, but it does fill in that gap nicely during the warmer late-spring-to-early-fall months should I find it a feasible venture.  I'm considering bidding at work to a different position should such an opportunity arise, preferably reporting at noon instead of 1:30 as I currently do if I can get weekends off...I think getting up early in the morning is a good habit to incorporate, plus races tend to start at that time of day on Saturday and this way I would have extra time after getting off work Fridays to sleep for the next day's race.  I'm also becoming fed up with my current specific assignment at my workplace that demands from me a careful attitude that I find lacking in other facilities that I depend on to do my job effectively...this is causing an undue amount of frustration and anxiety that I feel unjustly inflicted upon me: perhaps it's time for a change as I spend the remainder of my working days and approach retirement...

Quote of the Week...from Paul Simon

There are two sorts of people in the world: Those who listen and those who are thinking about what they are going to say next.                                                     ---Paul Simon

Over the years I've generally liked Paul Simon's music...especially when he was collaborating with Art Garfunkel earlier on.  Let's see, my favorite songs from them are Scarborough Fair, Fakin' It, I am a Rock, America, The Boxer and Cecilia.  With Paul Simon as solo artist, I liked his Duncan and Boy in the Bubble above the rest.  The above quote of his doesn't really have anything to do with music per se...it's more about folks in conversation or in small group settings.  From my experiences and perspective, it all comes down to the felt expectations within the situation.  Within the context of the conversations or group discussions, am I expected to be an active, talking participant? This is especially relevant in small groups where they go around a circle to focus on each person...groan, you can bet that I'm thinking of what I'm going to say before my "turn" in these scenarios instead of listening to others!  With any situation, listening is a skill that must be learned. And sometimes taking a little time before one speaks his or her mind to the other can go a long way to understanding more deeply the thoughts behind what is being said. Listening empathetically doesn't mean that I agree with what you're saying, but rather that I esteem you enough to want to understand the full message and intent behind it...and also implicitly invite you to show me the same level of respect when I am talking.  And sometimes, when the opportunity within a discussion does arise for me to speak, it might behoove me more to repeat and clarify what I had just heard...just to make sure I got it right...before I sound off about my own reactions...

Just Finished Reading Isaac Newton by James Gleick

Isaac Newton, more than any other individual, ushered in the revolution in science and technology that we so often take for granted today.  James Gleick, a noted science historian and author, decided to write a biography of Sir Isaac, who lived in England from 1642 to 1727, a prodigious life span for someone in his day.  Gleick traces elements of Newton's childhood including his family and their "in-between" social class status as modest landowners, going through his academic years and settling on the Great Plague of 1665-66, when his Cambridge classes were cancelled, and he studied in reclusion at his family's countryside home.  It was then that Newton developed many of his ideas that would later bring him fame and reward, such as classical mechanics, the nature of gravity as a universal principal both on Earth and with celestial bodies, and the invention of calculus...he tended to avoid publishing his results, however, which would later lead him into conflict with others claiming that they were the discoverers.  Gleick's biography is balanced between discussing Isaac Newton the person and the subject matter he tackled...you don't need to be a scientist or mathematician to appreciate this well-thought-out book.  I happened to check it out from my library using the Libby app...so can you if you're registered with a participating public library.  I haven't read too many biographies of late, although when I was a kid in elementary school, I must have read every single book in the children's biography series my school's library carried...and that was a lot!  I think that may have been one of the main catalysts in my lifelong interest in history.  One thing I appreciate about Isaac Newton is that he, like myself, tended to do better in seclusion than when stuck surrounded by a lot of people with their agendas, egos and tribalism.  Newton was an individualist who wasn't averse to arguing vehemently over his beliefs, and could be pretty hard on others, as when after assuming the role of standardizing Britain's currency he supported capital punishment for convicted counterfeiters.  Gleick also examined Newton's religious beliefs, including his privately held rejection of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.  You can't read this book without coming away with a greater appreciate of this giant of science as well as learning a few things about that science...and the different schools of thought about it in Newton's era...

Weekly Short Stories: 1989 Science Fiction, Part 2

Today marks the second week of my examination of 1989 short science fiction as it appeared in the Donald A. Wollheim anthology The 1990 Annual World's Best SF, featuring stories the editor picked from the previous year. Marking the climax of the collapse of communist regimes in central and eastern Europe, on November 9, 1989, celebrating Germans tore down the Berlin War separating East from West Berlin....the most visual symbol of the decades-long Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States and allies.  It's sad to see how, over the past few years, the hopes for a truly peaceful and cooperative international community of nations have been squandered...but enough of that for now, here are my takes on the next four stories in Wollheim's book...

ABE LINCOLN IN McDONALD'S by James Morrow

Abraham Lincoln has in his hand a treaty, already signed by Jefferson Davis, that would prematurely end the Civil War and keep slavery alive in the South.  He steps through time into our own and discovers the ramifications of his inclination to sign that treaty: slavery and the accompanying racial prejudice not only survived, but it has spread to the entire country...while industrialization and modernization continued.  A specific event occurs that old Abe witnesses which makes his final decision for him...

DEATH SHIP by Barringtion J. Bayley

In a future Orwellian dystopian totalitarian state always at war, an official maneuvers himself to be on a time machine craft into the future in order to alter the life of his son, whose attitudes he disapproves of.  This story conjectures on there actually being a "future" independent of our present...it was a little difficult for me to understand, although I had no trouble grasping the final conclusion....while the "state" went on as if what was shown true really wasn't.  Reminds me of some of our politicians in the "present"....

IN TRANSLATION by Lisa Tuttle

An alien presence has established itself on Earth, and while humans are aware of them, they themselves are very unobtrusive, almost invisible. The visitors inspire a cult following, and man is willing to abandon his own wife while seeking their presence.  I can't help but think this story is an analogy to how some "good" people get totally carried away with religion and religious fantasies of interacting with incorporeal "good" spiritual entities to the detriment of their own lives and relationships...

A SLEEP AND A FORGETTING by Robert Silverberg

I wonder if the creators of the movie The Sixth Sense got their premise from this story about the discovery that centuries-old voices from the dead past can be heard from a probe around the planet Mercury...it seems the sun's gravitational pull warps time around it...hey, didn't the movie Star Trek IV about the whales follow this idea as well? But the protagonists are in for a rude awakening: the dead can hear them as well, and a disturbing character from the past is revealed.  Great old sci-fi tale from a great old sci-fi master...

Next week I conclude my look at Donald A. Wollheim's anthology...

Dreary Excursion to News on TV

I'm sitting here on a Tuesday morning in my nearby Dunkin' Donuts...sometimes I feel the need to get out a little bit in public in order to focus my mind on writing, which in the case of this blog is a personal discipline of habit more than anything else.  Sometimes it's hard for me to arrive at a topic...I just have to turn on the news on TV, though, to come up with stuff.  Okay, let's see, mass shootings sprinkled across the country, allegation of police brutality against a young black man, nutty, fascist election-denying politicians gaining seats of power in Congress, fascist warmonger Putin continuing to bomb apartments in Ukraine (by the way, most of those fascist American politicians seem to support him),..where do I stop?  I've already held from early on that the Russian president's decision to invade Ukraine (and continue this conflict) was more a matter of internal political conflict than from any beef with the neighboring nation, which voluntarily gave up its nuclear arsenal following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in exchange for assurances against a later Russian invasion.  H-m-m... Raising the dubious banner of nationalist patriotism against enemies abroad...real or imagined...is a time-tested way of generating political support among the population, especially the unquestioning rabble.  Let's see how supportive they remain in Putinland when he demands young men be forcibly conscripted into the war...oh, wait, that's already happening.  I wonder how I can do anything about all this...it seems that when I watch the news...on any channel...I get the feeling that I am being manipulated to generate an emotional response...usually fear and/or anger...to whatever the topic is and how it is being presented.  I think I'll go back to printed news or, better yet, store up some extra blog articles to publish on days like this when I'm at a loss for something to write about...

Podcast about Other People's Opinions

Today's Mindset Mentor podcast, with Rob Dial as its host, has as the topic Other People's Opinions.  I pretty much assumed at the start that he would be discussing other people's opinions about oneself, not necessarily what they thought about the Dallas Cowboys blowing another playoff game or their loony notions about the world of politics.  And of course, that was the theme as Dial makes two substantive points about opinions and advice...which he unfortunately tends to blur together: they're not one and the same.  He emphasizes that we should sit down and write the names of those in our lives whose opinions of us really matter, stressing that the list should be short (he said "three" for himself).  For me, there are four: those in my childhood and adult nuclear families who are still here among us.  Yet to varying degrees, others' views of me matter as well...but only up to a point.  As for advice, Dial confirms what I already knew: just because someone may be on that short list, if he or she does not have the background or knowledge appropriate to their advice, then don't necessarily accept it...while being polite just the same.  This is a timely episode in our age of social media and the desire to be "liked" and popular.  Dial explains that the desire to fit in with a group goes back to our human origins when being accepted by the tribe was necessary for survival...rejection back then could be tantamount to a death sentence in the unforgiving wilds.  But today it's different and both the host and I are in agreement that while being a discerning individual can be challenging, especially when one feels he or she is isolated or an outsider, the reward of confidence in one's own ability to reason and act correspondingly far outweighs the negatives...

Achy Body Orders Me to Take It Easy This Weekend and Watch Sports on TV

From time to time in my aging life, my poor old body just gets a little too strained...this weekend my achy back had a conversation with me, telling me to take it easy and rest for the two days.  Sounded good to me...I've been watching TV, particularly the National Football League divisional playoffs, the Australian Open tennis tournament, and assorted soccer leagues matches in the Mexican and English Premier Leagues.  While resting my body I thought I'd give my brain a break as well...hence, another sports article!  Out of the four NFL contests, "my" teams won three...sadly, Jacksonville bowed out to the Kansas City Chiefs although they played them proud and tough.  Philadelphia thoroughly dominated the NY Giants in the other Saturday game and earlier today Cincinnati ended another Buffalo season with an impressive performance.  That game was played in the middle of a driving snowstorm at Buffalo...the Bengals (and myself) felt that the NFL offices were unfair in not holding the game at a neutral site since the two teams' earlier regular season game was cancelled because a Bills player suffered cardiac arrest on the field.  Had Buffalo won the cancelled game they would have had the home field advantage over Kansas City, so the league officials decreed that should those two meet in the conference championship, then the game would be held at a neutral site.  But likewise, had Cincinnati beat Buffalo in that cancelled game, they would have had a better seeding than the Bills...but the officials made them play on the road, anyway...NOT FAIR.  And just now, the San Francisco 49ers held off Dallas...ha, ha, ha...I can't wait to hear what Cowboys-basher Stephen A. Smith has to say about the losers tomorrow morning on his ESPN show!  As for the tennis, I found it all kind of boring, sad to say...ditto with the soccer.  Oh well, there have been plenty of sleeping opportunities for me this weekend...

Rainy Day Hunkering Down with NFL Playoffs on TV

Today I'm hunkering down at home on this miserably rainy, cool day in Gainesville, sleeping in late and watching sports on TV.  Later this afternoon and evening will be two NFL playoffs games: Jacksonville at Kansas City and the New York Giants at Philadelphia.  It bugged me a little that the Jags and Chiefs will be playing each other at this stage since they happen to be my favorites out of the remaining teams...oh well, that means that at least one of them (probably KC) will survive until next week's conference championship game.  Tomorrow the Buffalo Bills will host last year's AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals while my current pick to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl, the San Francisco 49ers, will be at home against the Dallas Cowboys.  Who do I want to win these four games? Jax, Philly, Cincy and San Fran.  A few years ago, when Lamar Jackson began his stellar career as the running quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens, I wondered how long that career would last before injuries caused by that aspect of his game caught up with him like it has done with others such as Robert Griffin III and, this season, "my" Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa.  Well, it seems that Lamar has become something of a fragile athlete like these, dooming his team to an early playoff exit and raising doubts about his future effectiveness in the league.  It's no accident that Tom Brady has made it to the ancient age of 45 in premier-level sports by adhering to a more traditional drop-back-or-hand-off quarterbacking style, with his running almost exclusively focused on scrambling from tacklers in passing situations or short yardage sneaks behind his offensive line.  It seems, though, that the trend is more for the young quarterbacks of this era to have a few short, explosive seasons before they soon become too hobbled to be effective...so sad.  Are you getting this, Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes?  I didn't think so...but at least these two aren't quite as run-crazy as Lamar has been... 

Quote of the Week...from Fareed Zakaria

I enjoy writing but I much prefer the experience of having written.          ---Fareed Zakaria

Fareed Zakaria is a CNN weekend host whose programs delve more deeply into international events and trends, placing his own stamp of perspective and opinions about his chosen topics...he is perhaps the best of his profession in this regard, in my opinion.  He also has had columns writing for the Washington Post and Newsweek. Since today happens to be his birthday, I thought I'd do a little delving of my own, checking out some of his past quotes...and found the above admission.  For some of us, writing is a blissful, wonderful experience...if there were more hours in the day then they'd just see it as more writing opportunity.  For others, there is no writing, just as there is no reading, either...that's true even so for a high percentage of the college-educated population.  And then there is the middle of the two extremes: people like me who like to write once I'm actually into writing something, but sometimes find it difficult getting started with a task or project.  Oh, and I suppose there's a fourth group as well: people, usually celebrities, who take credit for writing books that others have written for them...we'll just leave these phonies out of the discussion.  One thing I like about this concept of blogging, besides it being freely provided (thank you, Google), is that I can write about anything (although I try to be discreet and respectful in some areas) and not only express my opinions, but also explain them and elaborate.  I've written this blog almost daily since April 2007, with some 5,300 total articles...and they're all still there, for you or anyone else in the world who has free access to the Internet.  I know that blog writing is something that I like a lot, yet there still is that resistance to sitting down and starting...some days I don't know what I will write about until I open up a new, blank page.  Fareed Zakaria, on the other hand, as a renowned journalist probably feels that he must adhere to much higher standards with his writing and use impeccable research, knowing that pretty much anything he says will be scrutinized to small detail by not only his colleagues (especially those in disagreement with his views) and those whom he features, but by millions of his general readers...that's bound to throw a damper on anyone's enjoyment of writing.  But the finished product? Pretty good, Fareed...

Podcaster's Suggestion of Misogi Method Interesting But Incomplete

According to podcaster Rob Dial on a recent Mindset Mentor episode of his, the Misogi Method derives from a traditional Japanese spiritual ritual involving purification by immersing oneself...for as long as possible...in very cold water.  Dial says he does this regularly, and then expanded upon the ritual to encompass anything that one doesn't think possible...like climbing a long, steep elevation or running a long distance, for example.  It's not something to be done regularly...no, maybe once a year or, as the host suggests, once a month. The point here is that doing something beyond one's perceived abilities serves as a breakthrough of possibilities and self-awareness...as well as bringing out a lot of self-imposed negative beliefs and attitudes.  I dig this idea, but Dial seems to have forgotten his repeatedly expressed philosophy of gradual, incremental change over stretches of time, even belittling it in this podcast.  Truth be told, here is where the concept of duality...combining two seemingly contradictory ideas...comes into play.  Gradually changing habits, combined with the abrupt "big feats" of Misogi, do not conflict...if anything, they should build upon one another.  Each person has a different body as well as mind with their respective life histories building unique tapestries of both skills and flaws, with widely differing physical and mental limitations.  I've had a few "Misogi's" in my life without recognizing them as such...I suppose tackling half-marathon races in sub-freezing temperature during a time of the day when I'm usually in the last stages of morning sleep is one.  But I wouldn't have done it had I not, over a span of months and years, established a daily workout routine and healthier lifestyle habits.   And you have to be careful what you select if you try this method of facing acute, demanding challenges...the point is to be able to WALK away from them with a greatly improved perspective on things...

Weekly Shortly Stories: 1989 Science Fiction, Part 1

Today I begin reviewing science fiction short stories from the year 1989 as they appeared in the annual anthology The 1990 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and representing his picks from the previous year.  It would be Wollheim's final anthology as he sadly passed away at the end of 1990.  For the years 1983-88 I have been reviewing stories from both Wollheim's "year's best" anthologies and those of Gardner Dozois...after I finish with this book that I'm currently on, it'll just be Gardner for the ensuing years, at least through 2018 if I get that far.  But for now, how about those first four tales in Wollheim's book...

ALPHAS by Gregory Benford

Set in the not-so-distant future, first contact is made with aliens whose flippant attitudes about terrestrial humans reminded me of the Vogons in Douglas Adams' hilarious Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...at least these dudes aren't building an intergalactic highway through our solar system!  No, instead they've set their sights on our neighboring world Venus and seem to be drastically changing it to be able to host their own kind of life.  Being territorial as we tend to be, a miffed humanity sends a ship to check them out...one of the crew becomes an unwitting hero in what must be the ultimate ride for anyone to experience...

THE MAGIC BULLET by Brian Stableford

This is a short sci-fi mystery tale, where a scientist experimenting with mice and viruses is attacked and his lab burned down.  A former friend is the sleuth here...she learns of a special "magic bullet" virus that eventually inserts itself into the host's genome, with drastic consequences for humanity. Great story...

NORTH OF THE ABYSS by Brian W. Aldiss

I look at the lives of the protagonist, a successful businessman, and his wife, and wonder why they're both so miserable...I guess happiness does come from within.  Oscar North, totally discontent with his life, finds a source of enlightenment when they visit Egypt and he learns of that land's ancient religion centered around Isis, Osiris, and other gods.  A story that leaves you wondering what is real, what isn't, and how much of our "reality" is captive to our own beliefs...

CHIPRUNNER by Robert Silverberg

A brilliant young man is wasting away in anorexia while his therapist struggles to understand his motives, which seem to revolve around making himself small enough to be among the very atoms themselves. Complicating it all is that the therapist himself is starting to dream of the same things. I understood the story without getting the premise...

Next week: more of Donald A. Wollheim's sci-fi short story picks from 1989...

Constellation of the Month: Taurus (the Bull)

 

If you're looking at the above star map of the evening wintertime Zodiac constellation Taurus, representing a bull, the planet Mars stands out sharply.  But it's only in that position in the night sky if you happen to go outside and view it tonight or in the next few days...don't expect to see it there if you're reading this in, say, 2024...or even just a few weeks from now, for that matter.  Aldebaran is the standout first magnitude star in Taurus, in proximity to the open star cluster Hyades, represented by some of the constellation's fainter stars.  The famous cluster Pleiades is situated on the constellation's western end, at first glance a smudge in the night sky. But with more intense inspection the brightest stars within it can be visually detected...if you have 20/20 eyesight, that is.  Near the tip of the "lower horn" lies M1, aka the Crab Nebula, remnant of a renowned supernova explosion in 1054...you need a good pair of binoculars or a telescope to view it.  Taurus is one of the more prominent constellations in the winter evening sky as well as being one of the northernmost in the Zodiac, passing the meridian around 9 pm local standard time.  But to its immediate south is easily the most brilliant constellation of all, Orion, and sometimes Taurus gets unfairly passed over.  If the sky is clear, why not step outside and see if you can see the Bull?  My suggestion is twofold: either look for the "smudge" (the Pleiades) and go eastward from that or identify Orion and go northward.  Oh, and right now Mars is pretty prominent and red: that's a good "skymark" as well...

Happy Martin Luther King Day

Today is officially Martin Luther King Day, although the late American civil rights leader had his 94th birthday yesterday.  When I was a kid growing up in the 1960s, the popular perception of him was that he was a controversial figure, always challenging the established order and stirring things up.  By the time I was earnestly paying attention to the news...when Lyndon Johnson was president...Dr. King was active on a host of social issues besides civil rights for blacks, and he adamantly opposed U.S. military involvement in Vietnam.  I've learned since then that the FBI had an extensive file on him, and he was suspected by some on the conservative right of being aligned with the Soviets.  I tend to dismiss this kind of allegation, especially considering the kind of scurrilous defamatory garbage currently floating around social and mass media about different people that others have chosen to hate.  Martin Luther King has been extensively quoted in this blog because his message has been one of equal opportunity, inclusion, the dignity of all work, tolerance, and, above all, love.  Everyone has a better nature to them, and may I suggest that we take a few minutes today to reflect on our own and how we can make it a more encompassing part of our lives...

Ran the Florida Track Club Mary Andrews Half-Marathon This Morning

 

Mary Andrews grew up in Gainesville and was a long-time running enthusiast, ably tackling the difficult marathon distance races.  She ran the Florida Track Club's first marathon held from Hawthorne in early 2021, but she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and died the same year at the tragically young age of 44...FTC now names this event in her honor.  Along with the marathon, originating and ending at the Hawthorne Trailhead right next to Hawthorne Middle/High School, they offered a half-marathon (13.1 miles)...more to my abilities.  This morning I ran that half-marathon, hoping to have a better race than last November's Tom Walker Memorial half-marathon, which I ended up walking the final three miles under unseasonably warm and humid conditions.  This morning the weather wouldn't be a hindrance, with the temperature dipping below 30 at race time and the humidity much lower.  I wore a warm zip-up jacket that I could open up as the race progressed and slide it down over my arms...worked for the first half, after which I shed it to retrieve later after the race. Before the race, starting punctually at 8 am, famous marathoners Frank Shorter and Jeff Galloway gave short speeches...I managed to get a photo of the popular creator of the Galloway Method of taking short regular walking breaks during long runs (see 2nd photo). The half-marathon consisted of two there-and-back laps along the eastern Hawthorne Trail...the marathon was, naturally, four laps.  The last pic shows the trail, clear of runners...reminded me a little of Frodo's hazardous trail to Rivendell (but I saw no mushrooms or sinister riders).   Everyone in both distances started at the same time and shared the course. My personal goal was simply to keep running and set for myself a 12 minute/mile pace, which I was gratified to be able to adhere to.  I ended up with a negative split for the race, finishing with a time of 2 hours 34 minutes 42 seconds and somehow managing to win my age group...click HERE to see the complete results.  I had no problems like I experienced with the previous half-marathon and had a lot of energy left over.  Still, my feet and legs ached too much as the race wore on, and I think that was because I was wearing shoes that did not provide enough cushion.  The next race...whenever that is...I'll definitely be using a pair that is better padded.  There was a very friendly, sweet spirit coming from the organizers and participants, and I appreciated the coffee, bagels, and doughnuts after the race.  I probably would have won a trinket award for my finish but wanted to get on home instead...that's okay, I run for the sake of the run, a true amateur...the medal in the top picture is given to all finishers.  Now my body is in the recovery stage, and I'm taking it easy for the rest of the day...

Cold Weather and Football

After generally warmer than usual temperatures this winter so far, the weather has turned frigid here in northern Florida. Tonight...and early tomorrow morning...Gainesville temperatures are slated to dip below freezing for several hours, and even reach the mid-20s.  Tomorrow it's only going to get up into the 50s...if you live up north where it gets much worse, you're probably laughing at this article.  But my plans are to be outside in the middle of all this and that's not exactly something I'm looking forward to.  Shifting the subject a bit, I see that the Los Angeles Chargers have scored early in their first round NFL playoff game against Jaguars, being played in much colder weather than usual in Jacksonville.  Although four teams I follow somehow managed to make the postseason playoffs in spite of their mediocre records, I wonder whether any of them will survive this first round.  A few hours ago, I was heartened by Seattle, one of those teams, coming out of their first half against heavily favored San Francisco with a 17-16 lead, but the 49ers stomped the Seahawks in the second half and ran away with a 41-23 win.  Tomorrow Miami travels to Buffalo and Monday Tampa Bay hosts Dallas...I'll count myself lucky if at least one of the Florida teams advance.  Hope you're keeping warm and if you like to watch football, that some of the games go your way...

Quote of the Week...from Gardner Dozois

When I was a boy in Salem, Mass., in the 1950s, if you wanted to buy a book, you had to take a train to Boston.  And when you got there, to a bookstore, there was no such thing as a science-fiction section.

                                                                  ---Gardner Dozois

Gardner Dozois (1947-2018) is probably best-known for his anthology series The Year's Best Science Fiction...which I'm currently reading and reviewing (I'm up to the year 1989), as well as being the editor of the acclaimed Asimov's Science Fiction magazine.  He's also written science fiction in both novel and short story form, but his fame has been as the role of a collector and editor of quality stories written by others.  His above quote places him a decade ahead me, but I couldn't tell you very much about bookstores even during the sixties, other than the book and supply store at my public school.  Then again, I tended to go more for libraries in my early youth, and liked those old children's series they sold at my nearby G.C. Murphy like Power Boys and Bobbsey Twins (I read all my sister's Trixie Beldon and Donna Parker books, too).  But sure, once bookstores, both new and used, began sprouting in full force during the seventies, I caught the bug and began buying paperbacks, mostly nonfiction. I picked the above quote because nowadays bookstores sadly seem to be in a state of retreat, both new and used. And for those that are still around, it's funny that now the science fiction section is often the biggest one.  I'm not bemoaning the advancement of digitalized books like Kindle or audiobooks, mind you...I make liberal use of both forms. But I also know that for some reason book publishing...unlike with music or movies/TV...lags far behind in the availability of bygone and out-of-print works for digital reading, while much is unavailable in libraries as well.  Which means you go to a used bookstore to find them...assuming there are any used bookstores.  Gainesville's number has steeply declined in recent years, but we still have a couple of them, along with a crazy used book sale that happens every (pandemic-free) year in April and October.  I'd say take a train to Jacksonville, but you can't do that from Gainesville anymore, either...

Asimov, Wollheim and Dozois...and Their SF Year-by-Year Anthology Series

Isaac Asimov and Donald A. Wollheim, both significant science fiction writers of their era in the mid-to-late twentieth century, passed away in their seventies just two years apart: Asimov in 1992 and Wollheim in 1990.  In their later years they were both important anthologists with Wollheim's Annual World's Best SF Series covering the period from 1964 through 1989.  Asimov, during the 1980s, decided to go back and anthologized his own (and co-editor Martin Greenberg's) favorites in a year-to-year retrospective series titled The Great SF Stories...this covered the years 1939-63.  Asimov, a longtime friend of Wollheim, had his series published by the latter's company, DAW Books.  Over the years and especially recently, I have appreciated and enjoyed the efforts of these two writers who obviously loved their chosen genre of fiction to undertake this sort of effort involving sorting through the many quality stories that their colleagues (and, sometimes, they themselves) produced.  It's a shame that, in this digital age, I can't get either anthology series on Kindle or audiobook...if they were recording artists there wouldn't be a problem with their old works.  Starting next Wednesday, I will be reviewing Wollheim's final anthology, published in 1990 while he was already very ill and covering that last year of 1989.  After that I plan to continue reviewing science fiction short stories from another excellent anthology, that of the late Gardner Dozois and titled The Year's Best Science Fiction (which is available on Kindle and audiobook)..his will continue through the year 2018 so I'm not very likely to run out of material anytime soon, especially since his collections are much lengthier than those of Asimov or Wollheim...I'm very grateful for all three of these important figures of science fiction...