Gators NCAA Bracket Situation Flips from Negative to Positive

As I mentioned in yesterday's article, a formidable looking seeding in the NCAA basketball tournament can change pretty quickly to an auspicious situation if tough teams lined up in future games unexpectedly get knocked off by lower-seeded teams. This is exactly what happened to the University of Florida yesterday.

The 7th seeded Gators took care of their own business by dominating 10th seeded Virgina in their opening tournament game 71-46 and then waited to see who their Sunday opponent would be, almost certainly 2nd seeded Missouri (groan). Instead, Missouri fell in a major, major upset to 15th seeded Norfolk State 86-84, resulting in a pairing tomorrow that favors Florida for reaching the goal of making it to the Sweet Sixteen. But as a colleague reminded me last night, they still have to face a team in Norfolk State that beat Missouri, which had gone through the season with a blistering 32-2 record. But as I see it, I would rather face a team that upset a tough opponent than have to contend with that opponent myself...

Other teams I am following, which include North Carolina, Florida State, and upstart South Florida, all made it through yesterday's games and, like Florida, will play again tomorrow to also try to become one of the vaunted final sixteen teams left in the tournament. Should be very interesting...

Gators Begin NCAA Tourney Play Today

Later, at 2 this afternoon, the Florida Gators basketball team will be trying to survive the so-called "second round" of the inflated 68-team NCAA Tournament against Virginia, a team that matches up well with UF. It should be a good game, but I will have to work and won't be able to watch it. Should Florida manage to get by the Cavaliers, they will probably have to face a formidable Missouri squad in the next game (which I should be free to watch if that scenario unfolds). They didn't get any breaks this year in the seedings, which placed them on a bumpy road throughout the tournament. At least at first glance.

Sometimes in tournaments like this, the way to the Final Four looks well nigh impossible with very tough teams lined up ahead to play in upcoming rounds. Then, almost miraculously, some of those teams inexplicably fall to underdogs and clear the way in that bracket. I think this happened to an extent in 2005 when Florida stunned everyone by first sneaking into the Final Four against anyone's expectations and then easily walking away with the national championship trophy. I'd like to say that the same could happen this year, but unfortunately the Gators, although good enough to be in the tournament, are nowhere near the level of that earlier championship team. Still, it's fun to see how far they might go...

I am not only rooting for Florida in the tournament. I also traditionally support North Carolina, and Florida State has an unusually good team this year. Yes, this just might be the year that the Seminoles do what Florida pulled off a few years ago...and win it all!

Buy This Car...and Ignore Sirens

I was watching a TV commercial the other day, and I can't for the life of me remember the brand being promoted. That's often the way it goes with advertising for me: the message somehow becomes disassociated from the product. After all, what does a gecko or a caveman have to do with auto insurance, for example...

But at least with this commercial, I was able to retain an association with the general product, although that really wouldn't help out the company shelling out the big bucks, thinking that their fancy advertising was actually bringing in customers. The commercial was about a car that was so high-quality that it minimized...no, completely blotted out outside noise. Examples of noises being excluded from the happy driver's privileged ears were shown, with the last one being a loud jack-hammer being used right outside the car window, in a heavily urban traffic setting. The driver smiled (was it a smug smile? I can't remember) as he heard NOTHING but saw the worker jack-hammering away. A virtual sound-proof driving experience. And he blissfully drove off, with the last sound heard in the commercial being the wailing siren of an emergency vehicle. The implication here was clear: with this car, you can even ignore ambulances, fire engines, and the police! Well, let's add warning horn blasts from other drivers as well!

I didn't know that emergency vehicle sirens were sounded just to annoy drivers in "inferior" vehicles. Apparently, though, if you're the proud owner of the special automobile being advertised, you have entered a different class of humanity, one that is entitled to total insulation from unwelcome sounds...as well as unwelcome civic responsibilities...

Sh-sh-sh! You're in the Coffee Shop!

The new renovation results for my "favorite" local Starbucks are in: it looks like a freaking library to me! That's interesting because my local "favorite" library branch has recently undergone its own renovation to make it more resemble a coffee shop...

When I first walked in this morning, I noticed two things: the strange, collective seating instead of the many small tables for small parties that the old design featured (and which I liked very much), and the fact that during such a busy time no one was sitting there. Just look in the above picture at a table that I would expect to see in a library. Not pictured is a row of packed-together seats lined up at a very narrow counter facing the window around the corner, seats that even children might have trouble fitting into alongside each other. In the time I've spent here today (sitting in one of the few "for-two" tables left in the joint), nobody's felt fit to sit there. Small wonder...

I don't blame the people running this store for the new arrangement, which is one of those top-down outcomes of a VERY top-down, highly centralized corporation. Still, I managed to throw in a couple of diplomatically expressed barbs at the manager when I ordered my coffee this morning (like I'm sure they'll instantly change things back to before after hearing my objections). But after sitting here a little, I began to shift a bit in my thinking...

Sometimes I see myself (please don't laugh) as a little bit different from people at large, even to the point, at times, of being a different variety of human being. If I decide to use the new seating while others shun it, then maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to actually come in at formerly crowded times and be able to find a seat, albeit one that I don't particularly care for. Yeah, maybe that cramped, long window counter with its small, high chairs is just the ticket for someone like me who tends to go "counter" to the crowd. Then again, my common sense tells me that the "crowd" will eventually adapt to the new seating and once again "crowd" me out...

Later...as I left the place, sure enough, that thin counter with its cramped seating was starting to fill up. Oh, well...

NCAA Tourney Brackets Bring Usual Outcries

Yesterday at 6 PM the brackets for the 68-team NCAA basketball championship tournament were announced, and with much fanfare. So beginning in a couple of days, depending on how they stand in the seedings, teams will either have to win six or seven games in a row to attain this year’s title of National Champion. As is the case each year, some schools felt unfairly left out of the tournament. The TV announcers kept bringing up that Drexel, from some obscure conference, was left out while Iona, from another equally obscure conference, was included. This “controversial” decision was explained by a member of the selection committee who determined that Iona had gone through a more demanding regular season with higher quality opponents. But to me, this is all beside the point. One, they keep adding to the total number of teams allowed in the tournament: had they just stuck with 64, the controversy would have been moot with neither team getting in. Two, each of these dinky, forgettable conferences were still represented in the tournament, by their own conference tournament champions. And three, isn’t this supposed to be the tournament to determine the national championship? Why are people obsessing over the obviously more inferior teams at the bottom of the field?

There is a continual debate going on in many sports about how much the post-season should weigh in for determining championships, as opposed to the regular season. In Division I college football, a school from a minor conference can do everything right and go undefeated year after year, but never get a chance to play for the national championship. This is simply unfair. Then, on the other end of the scale in college basketball, while any school has a shot at the title, the heavy emphasis on the season-ending tournament tends to de-emphasize the regular season in terms of importance. In fact, in most conferences a school can lose every game until the conference championship tournament and then make the NCAA tourney if they suddenly come alive and win their conference championship. That just doesn’t sound right, either.

The fact remains, though, that a playoff system that gives all teams a shot at the title if they can win at the crucial time is superior to one that automatically consigns a large section of the teams to second-class status, never to get a chance to be champion no matter how well they do. How would you like it if you were a Seattle Mariner fan in baseball (or a Seattle Seahawk fan in football) and were told that, since Seattle isn’t considered to be “major” enough then they can’t play for the championship no matter how well they do in the regular season? But that’s how they run major college football. Still, as often as not, the eventual winner of the NCAA Basketball Tournament often leads to many wondering whether this is also an inadequate way to determine the best team…

Official's Blown Call in Tennessee-Mississippi Game

Yesterday I was watching a college basketball game. It was the end of one of the Southeastern Conference tournament contests, this one pitting Tennessee against Mississippi (Old Miss). The game was very close and exciting, with a long Tennessee three-point basket in the closing seconds sending the game into overtime. But as the overtime period progressed, Old Miss built up what appeared to be an insurmountable lead. Still, Tennessee kept plugging away until they had chipped their deficit to only two points with about a half minute left. Then Mississippi in-bounded and one of their players threw a pass that a Tennessee player deflected off the face of another Old Miss player. The ball then went out of bounds. The Tennessee sideline rose up in excitement, seeing that they were going to get the ball back with a chance to tie or even go ahead. But the official standing right there missed the call and gave the ball back to Mississippi. They managed to hold on to the lead after that and win the game. Since I was pulling for Tennessee to win the game (although I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool Volunteer fan), I felt cheated by the ending. I can imagine how the fans, students, players, and coaches felt. Still, because the college basketball establishment frowns upon dissension in the press, this wasn't a situation where the coaches and players railed about the unfair call that may have cost them the game. And truthfully, who knows what would have happened anyway had Tennessee been awarded the ball on that play: they may have flubbed up the basket they would be trying to score or even have turned the ball over...

It's always interesting how people can focus on ONE controversial moment in a close game to judge the validity of the eventual outcome. After all, Tennessee shot rather poorly throughout that game: had they made just a few more baskets, they would have won handily without even needing overtime to accomplish it.

I have mixed feelings about the college establishment muffling the complaints of players and coaches about poor officiating. As an American, I think ideas and opinions should be freely expressed, especially those of a dissenting nature. There does need to be a sense of restraint and decorum about expressing such views, though, and it is here that the powers-that-be can and should exercise some influence over what is said.

Contrast this with a "reality" TV show I saw the other day about tattoo artists vying for some mythical reality TV tattooing title. Every time, it seemed, that a contestant was rated behind an opponent, they vociferously complained, often with anger and profanity, that the judges didn't know what they were doing. After seeing this, I can appreciate why the college sports authorities would want to quash open dissent: it can get pretty ugly sometimes...

Allergies Picking Up

I have this recurring problem every year of airborne allergies around this time. In 2012, with its almost nonexistent winter, this allergy season has started earlier than usual. And although I take medication to alleviate the effects, I still suffer. The last three days have been particularly difficult for me. Although this shouldn't interfere with my blogging, I let it anyway. I think part of the reason for this is that I have let myself get away from the habit of having a specific time and place in which to fully concentrate on writing, to the exclusion of everything else. It's about time to reach into my memories and conjure up an appropriate setting in which to do some effective writing...

Good Peyton, Bad Payton

I'm sure that New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton would be indignant, if not outright furious, were it revealed that another NFL team had offered to pay its players bonuses for injuring his star quarterback Drew Brees during games. As a matter of fact, the Saints have been recently enjoyed something of a "good guy" image in the league, engendering a nationwide following. But recently the revelations (and admissions) that Payton and his assistant were handing out bonuses for injurious hits to players on other teams has brought this franchise down to gutter level, even surpassing the New England Patriots videotaping scandal a few years back for its vileness. How would you like to be a team in New Orleans' division and have to play them twice a year? Well, Sean Payton's reputation is shot, as far as I'm concerned...

Another "pay-ton", this one whose reputation remains sky-high, has just been cut from his career-long team: this week the Indianapolis Colts, anticipating a star quarterback drafting of Stanford's Andrew Luck, cut Peyton Manning, possibly the greatest quarterback in the game's history, to avoid paying out a contractually-imposed $28 million bonus. Manning suffered through three neck operations and difficult, long recoveries last year and it's uncertain how much longer he will be able to play professional football. If the price tag isn't too high, it would be cool to see him wearing a Miami Dolphins uniform next year...

Neck injuries can build up over time, so I wonder whether some of Peyton's neck problems came about from opposing players putting unnecessarily rough hits on him in order to collect "bounties". I do remember the Colts playing in the Super Bowl against the Saints a couple of years back. In my opinion, everyone in New Orleans management aware of their disgusting program who even just gave it tacit approval should be fired. Immediately.

NCAA Hoops March Madness Upon Us

Now that March is here, I suppose it's time for me to pump up some enthusiasm for college basketball. After all, it is now conference playoff time and many teams across the country are vying for the dwindling spots open for the vaunted NCAA Tournament. The University of Florida is pretty much guaranteed a spot, regardless how they do in Friday's SEC tourney game. They haven't done too well lately, though, which had partially to do with the season-ending injury to their able sophomore guard Will Yeguete. Still, that doesn't explain the team's incredibly poor shooting performances in recent games. If they want to go far in either the SEC or NCAA tournaments, they had better get that part of their game together.

Last night there were a couple of games on ESPN in minor conferences: VCU vs Drexel and Gonzaga vs St. Mary's. Sorry, I haven't quite gotten my enthusiasm high enough to care in the slightest about these games, which by what I saw were pretty competitive. But maybe I just need to wait a week or so...

Venus and Jupiter on Display in Western Evening Sky

Just before the skies around my region clouded up for a succession of days, I noticed one twilight, when I happened to be off from work and therefore with the opportunity to sky gaze, that, looking west just after sunset, the moon (waxing crescent) was juxtaposed very close to a very bright Venus. And Jupiter was close by, a few degrees eastward (i.e., up). Then the overcast conditions ensued. I saw a reference to this astronomical event (at least from the perspective of Earth) later on a cable news show, but even they were realistic enough to point out that this was visible "from Los Angeles". I guess the rest of the country was under one big, bad-ass cloud!

Now the skies have cleared up again and, alas, our lunar companion has moved on with its phasing toward more eastern parts of the night sky. But the spectacle of seeing the two brightest planets so close to each other in the early evening sky is still something to behold. Try to catch this wonder if you have the chance...

Sermon Hits the Mark on Several Points

At the local church that I regularly attend with my family, the pastor there gave a sermon today that resonated with me. He emphasized the need for people to stop being in such an impatient hurry throughout their day. Instead, they need to build margins within their lives in order to give themselves more time to get to where they want to go, and to do the things they want to do once they get there. He also decried the insidious multitasking that has permeated our society. And he was at least partially right when he said that trying to do more than one thing at once usually leads to all things attempted coming out substandard.

Naturally, this preacher followed the theology he subscribed to and cited Jesus as the perfect example of someone who, although clearly under a lot of time pressure to accomplish a great deal in a very short time, nevertheless calmly went about his tasks, concentrating on one at a time, while building in rest periods between activities.

Rest is important, and so is recreation. Naturally, we don't want to lose sight of our duties and goals in life, either. But better to pace oneself at things than to frantically burn oneself out under unrealistic deadlines and schedules while rushing through several activities at once.

Still, I beg to differ with the pastor's flat-out opposition to multitasking. In my opinion, being able to think on different levels about different things at the same time is actually part of our basic human nature and is necessary to effectively function as a mature adult in today's society. Naturally, some activities (like driving) demand more focused attention to the task at hand than do others (like tidying up the house). When I run, I usually listen to my MP3 player. Also, during that activity I mentally review foreign language vocabulary lists and engage in an inner dialogue about just any topic that interests me. In fact, some blog article topics of mine have come to me while running...

I suppose in the end that balance between work and rest is the main thing. And cultivating a sense of patience and perspective about what can be done in the time accorded us. Gee, that sounds an awful lot like Gandolf's advice to Frodo!

Winnie the Pooh's Got Nothing on This Blustery Day

Today has been one of those days when weather dominates. At this writing (about 5:30 pm), it hasn't yet rained. But the wind has been absolutely ferocious around Gainesville. I was due for a long run today, but I decided to forgo the blustery outdoors in favor of a "kindler, gentler" indoor setting: the treadmill at my local YMCA. While I was running my eight miles there, I looked out on the pool area, which faced the exercise room. There were lap swimmers on the right and a few families in the shallow end on the left. Around the pool was an assortment of plastic lounge chairs, upright chairs, and tables. Taking in the scenery while listening to my MP3 music helps to relieve the monotony traditionally associated with treadmill running. Today, though, I didn't anticipate anything remotely exciting. That suddenly changed, though, when I saw a lounge chair suddenly move by itself about ten feet to the left, resembling a scene from the movie Poltergeist. But that was just a forerunner of a different cinematic association. For a couple of minutes later, the poolside scene resembled the tornado segment of The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy frantically ran back to her farm as the sky darkened and objects flew up all around. Only here it was several lounge chairs being lifted into the air and crashing back down, with some of their backs torn off. And just on the other side of the glass window from me, a medium-size circular plastic table lifted into the air and crashed into the glass door to my left, miraculously avoiding breaking it, after which it was thrown into a bush about 15 feet away. As suddenly as this mini-windstorm came on, it ended just as quickly. A couple of minutes later, a lifeguard nonchalantly walked around the area, returning chairs and tables to their original places and reattaching the backs to the lounge chairs. I was just relieved that no one was hit by flying chairs during the gale burst, because there was a strong potential for injury there. The winds continued to come and go with occasional strong gusts, and the situation continues to remain the same.

I understand that there are two storm systems at play here, including the one that swept through the Midwest and South, killing at last count 32 people from tornadoes. There is a tornado watch for my area through the night, which is expected to see an intensification of the storminess...

...With a Nod to Sufjan Stevens

Happy Casimir Pulaski Day...other than that, there's not a lot for me to report on for this March 1. Things are generally going well with me, how about you? I'll be getting a week's vacation in a couple of days, although I don't have anything special planned. But sometimes just having some time off from work is just the right prescription, giving opportunities for rest and some catch-up work around the home...

Let's see, what am I reading nowadays? I just finished mystery writer Susan Grafton's J is for Justice novel; it has a pretty nifty ending, I must say. Now I'm starting on the late Michael Crichton's Sphere, having deliberately avoided the movie. I hardly ever read the book version of a movie after I've watched it, although I am always watching movies based on books I have previously read. The only exception I know to this was with Arthur C. Clarke/Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, when I read the book after seeing the movie. But then again, this was a unusual case of a book written based on the movie! I am also gradually getting through what is shaping up to be an excellent novel by Stephen King: 11/22/63. I haven't yet reached the halfway point, though...

I am planning to continue my running until someone with medical authority in the matter flat-out prohibits it. Today I did a short run of 3.24 miles. I'll be running a short distance tomorrow since I'm driving to Jacksonville and back in the morning. I plan to keep up my distance running as I instinctively feel that it definitely contributes to my overall good health. I also want to go back to swimming like I did last year...

February Running Summary

I decided, since I passed up the two half-marathon races I had long been dreaming of running in due to medical concerns and pressure from within my own family, to change the emphasis on my running to more of a routine nature. To this end, I set the (almost absurdly) easily attainable goal of running 100 miles per month. In February, I easily accomplished this, piling up 111.43 miles. I also ran on 25 out of this leap year February's 29 days. And the longest run? A paltry (for me) 9.33 miles...

Gainesville City Commission Election Results Typical

In the Gainesville at-large city commission election held yesterday, my concerns from yesterday's article were unnecessary. Although city commission races are technically non-partisan, the candidates are still usually either Republican or Democratic. Sometimes it's a little difficult to figure them out, but then again sometimes it isn't. The conservative Republican candidate, who deluged my mailbox with campaign ads and the city with campaign signs, nevertheless fell victim to the typical Gainesville formula in city-wide general elections: Democrats (liberal side) get 57-59 % while Republicans (conservative side) get 41-43 %. A couple of years ago, during the tea party craze, this formula was overturned when the Democrat/liberal squeaked out a very narrow victory over his teabagger opponent. In that campaign, the teabagger made a continual issue of his opponent's homosexuality, hoping (apparently successfully) to reap some "bigotry" votes for himself. But yesterday the pattern returned: the victor had about 56.5 % while the loser got 43.5 %.

Conservatives and Republicans do win sometimes in Gainesville. We once had a long-term sheriff who was a Republican (of course, he benefited from rural votes and outlying more conservative county communities). He seemed reasonable while at his sheriff's post, but when he won a state legislature seat he became an arch-conservative ideologue of the worst kind. So although I do like to have the conservative viewpoint heard in my local government, I am a bit reticent about supporting any candidate who appears to have ambitions for "higher" office, this recent commission race a case in point...

My Take on Today's City Commission Election

Today is Election Day in Gainesville, with an at-large city commission runoff being the only race. A politically moderate former commissioner is running against a conservative. The conservative has inundated the mail with his campaign ads, some of which put down the other (who has run a positive campaign himself). He is also very ambitious: in my opinion, he is using this local race as a stepping stone to higher political office. I’m not too happy with that, either.

In the last commission race, I voted for a conservative candidate because the seven-member commission had no conservatives at the time and I believed that legitimate interests in the community that were better served by conservatives were not being properly heard by my city government. Also, I wanted someone in there who could help persuade the others not to embark upon wasteful or foolish projects. But now that we have a conservative, I don’t want to keep adding to the total. I still want a moderate/liberal city commission.

So for the above reasons, I’m voting against that ambitious young conservative today more than I am voting for the other candidate. It will be interesting to see whether his bombardment of campaign ads will pay off for him. I hope it doesn’t.

Rainy Weather Lately

The weather here in north central Florida is worth noting: we're going on three straight days of very rainy weather. The cumulative rainfall is starting to saturate the ground to the point where it may not be advisable to park one's vehicle on the grass. Maybe some other spot, even the street, may be more advisable, at least until the waters abate.

As far as I am concerned, the rain is an obstacle to my running...at least outdoors running (I can always resort to the treadmill). Not that I mind being rained on that much: it's the wet road surface that I really want to avoid, especially those sections along the roadside where the water mixes with oil and grease from parked cars and aggravates the danger of slipping and falling. So even when it stops this constant raining early in the afternoon (although right now it seems as if that will never happen), I'll still be wary about running on the streets. But maybe after a while the rainwater will drain off the streets to the point where I'll feel safe enough running down them again.

Ultimately, though, it will help my running (and my breathing, too) if this much-needed rainfall soaks the ground enough to help forestall forest fires in the near future. So to that extent I welcome the nasty weather around me...

Limbaugh: Santorum vs Romney in '12, Hillary vs Obama in '08

I don't think that right-wing radio talk jock Rush Limbaugh has come out and endorsed any of the Republican candidates for president so far. But from what I can gather secondhand, being someone who is usually repelled when I directly listen to any of his shows, he doesn't make much sense to me. If he really does want for Barack Obama to be defeated in this year's election, that is.

Rick Santorum is reportedly sending out campaign ads featuring Limbaugh's image and citing his praise for Santorum and his conservative credentials. Meanwhile, Limbaugh has consistently been critical of Mitt Romney on his radio show. You might say that, since the radio dude is conservative, then he would naturally lean toward the more conservative candidate. But...

Four years ago, McCain had the Republican nomination sewn up early in the primary campaign season. But Democratic frontrunner Obama had to campaign for months against a very tenacious Hillary Clinton to amass enough votes to secure the nomination. During this time, Rush Limbaugh was strongly urging Republican voters in those states whose primaries allowed them to cross over and vote in the Democratic primaries to vote for Hillary. According to Limbaugh's thinking, this would tie up the Obama campaign (and funds) and could help split the Democrats during the general campaign.

Remembering how Limbaugh handled the 2008 campaign, I am a little taken aback at how he seems to be doing just the opposite with Romney, who is clearly the Republican candidate with the best chance of winning the general election. If I were in Limbaugh's shoes (and I'm very glad I'm not), I'd be like his political ally Ann Coulter and would promote Romney while detracting from the other candidates. Instead, he seems to be trying to drag out the GOP campaign, inviting the same discord that he encouraged among the Democrats four years ago.

Now this all has me intrigued: maybe I should tune in to Limbaugh's show and hear for myself how he goes about hemming and hawing over this issue...

After Work at Starbucks on Saturday Night

I managed to get off a couple of hours early from work tonight. I didn't want to go directly home, though, because I felt like going to one of my area Starbucks to study a while. I was considering three of them: Magnolia Park, Archer Road, and West Newberry Road near I-75. The first I dismissed because it closes at ten. The other two stay open until midnight. I often try out the Archer Road location because it is very close to my workplace. Tonight, though, the parking lot there was so crammed that I had trouble just getting through it and back out on the street. While passing by the Starbucks there, I did get a fleeting look inside: thoroughly packed to the hilt with humanity. So I traveled further down the road to the Newberry Road store. It was empty, except for the workers baristas. Later more customers came in, but this location must be the best-kept secret in Gainesville. No worry about me giving the secret away, though: hardly anyone reads this blog...

Which Past Presidential Election is the Best Model for 2012?

I suppose that, depending on which side of the political fence you're on (and that you actually have a clue regarding American presidential electoral history), this upcoming 2012 election will "fit" into a model represented by some past elections. For this article's sake, let's take the elections from 1968-2008: these are the ones I personally followed (since age 12).

To find a fitting model for 2012, we have to see, in previous elections, a sitting president looking to either be elected for the first time (Ford in 1976) or re-elected. In 1968, incumbent Lyndon Johnson had dropped out and his party's nominee Humphrey lost the election to Nixon. For this article's purposes, though, I will stick with an individual SITTING president running to stay in office. So the years 1968, 1988, 2000, and 2008 are out, still leaving quite a lot to examine.

In 1972, Richard Nixon was running for re-election while the opposition Democrats, instead of uniting around a more centrist candidate, chose George McGovern to run in the general election. The result was a near-record landslide for Nixon. In 2012, Democrats salivate while Republicans quake at the prospect of right-wing ideologue Rick Santorum securing the GOP nomination, portending a similar electoral outcome.

In 1976, appointed VP and eventual president Gerald Ford lost a very close election to smiling, ever-promising candidate Jimmy Carter. Carter tried to be all things to all people, while Ford carried the burden of his pardon to Nixon for any Watergate scandal crimes. The Republicans would like this to be a model for a November victory this year, but it can only be pulled off if more centrist candidate Mitt Romney can successfully pull away early from Santorum and start to court more centrist voters. Ford also had to suffer through a grueling party nomination campaign against Ronald Reagan, putting him at a disadvantage early in the general campaign. Obama is unopposed within his own party.

In 1980, it was Carter running for another term, this time against Ronald Reagan. And he probably would have stayed in office had the economy not tanked just before the election. This is another scenario that the Republicans would like to see, their claims to want the economy to improve notwithstanding. But like Ford in 1976 and again unlike Obama in 2012, the incumbent Carter had to endure a hard campaign within his own party, this time the opponent being Edward Kennedy.

In both Reagan and Bill Clinton's reelection campaigns in 1984 and 1996, respectively, the country was at peace, the economy was in very good shape, and the voters consequently endorsed the incumbent as representing the relatively successful status quo. Barack Obama and the Democrats see this as an ideal type of election, but in reality we are still at war and the economy isn't exactly booming, either. But to mitigate this, they will spin both situations as being on the rebound.

Another campaign that the Republicans derive some hope from is 1992 between incumbent George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and temperamental (thank God he wasn't elected) business tycoon Ross Perot. But the way I see it, this isn't a very good model for two reasons. One, Perot probably helped Clinton more than he did Bush by siphoning more votes from the latter. Two, the Republicans had been in power for 12 years and the country wanted a change. In 2012, the Democrats have only been in the White House going on 4 years.

And now we come to the final election left to consider, and which I consider to be the most likely scenario for this year: 2004. Incumbent Republican George W. Bush, strongly embraced by his own party and vilified by the opposition, won a squeaker election against bland Massachusetts politician John Kerry in a very dirty, vicious campaign. For this election, the country was asked to stay the course, although we were in the middle of a quagmire of a war and an escalating national debt. Sound familiar...especially that part about the bland Massachusetts politician? The essential difference in 2012, besides the parties being reversed in their power/opposition roles, is that the economy is more of a burden to Obama while the war was more of a burden to Bush. But we'll see what really happens...

Inspired Blog Topics Hard to Come By Lately

Lately it has been a little more difficult a task for me to sit down and write a blog article. I haven't been in a very philosophical state lately, and such thinking often leads me to an interesting (for me) topic to write about. My running, which is often the subject of articles, has become rather uneventful and routine. Musically, I listen pretty much to the same acts on my mp3 player (although there is a "new" group that I have begun to focus on; more about that in a later article). The news has been uncooperative as well, especially on the domestic political front, with Rick Santorum becoming the favorite of pious, self-righteous, and (I suspect) largely hypocritical right wing evangelical voters with his advocacy of government intrusion and judgement regarding individual citizens' sexual behavior and reproductive choices. And with sports, hockey is terminally boring, pro basketball angers me with its prima donna self-important superstars, and college basketball is mired in the yawn-inspiring regular season, still a few weeks away from the traditionally exciting March Madness of the NCAA Tournament. And I steer away from gossip and intensely personal topics. Leaving the weather to talk about, I suppose...

So maybe I'll focus on the unseasonably warm weather around here. But that can get to be a bore, too. Now please excuse me while I go get another cup of coffee to keep me awake through all this ennui...

Controlled Burn Brings Annoying Haze

I had already run about five and a half miles of my seven-mile run around the neighborhood yesterday afternoon and was greatly enjoying the moderate temperature (low sixties) and low humidity. The only drawback was a pretty strong wind coming out of the northeast. That drawback because more pronounced at the end of my run when smoky haze from a fire off somewhere in that direction began to descend around me. I finished my run without experiencing anything worse than that annoying, unpleasant smell. But when my daughter went out a few minutes later to play basketball and do her own workout, she had to cut it off short when the haze became too thick to withstand. I thought to myself, oh no, here come those wildfires again...

But as it turns out, the smoke came from a controlled burn in the National Guard's Camp Blanding, a few miles east of Starke and about 30 miles northeast of Gainesville. According to the Independent Florida Alligator article reporting this, these deliberate burns at Blanding are common but the wind usually sends the smoke elsewhere.

I suppose that I could get really ticked off about the haze messing things up outside. But if this eventually helps to prevent future uncontrolled wildfires in the areas, then maybe this is one of those unpleasant but necessary burdens to bear about living where I live. In any event, the haze has completely disappeared by this time the next morning...

Sun "Shines" With Five Points Coverage

My hometown newspaper Gainesville Sun, notorious for generally ignoring our own local area's running races over the years, finally saw the light and chose to give some decent, respectful coverage to a major, popular local sporting event: the annual LifeSouth Five Points Marathon/Half-Marathon race, held yesterday morning. Not only did they feature a Saturday article, but also one in the Sunday paper on race day. But the real test would be whether they actually reported on the results Monday: this they did with gusto. Not only was there a long article about BOTH the marathon and half-marathon, accompanied by a listing of the top 25 finishers in each event, but also there was a teaser photo of the race on the front page. Now if they can only stick with this pattern of race coverage! Kudos to them! Here's a link to the article.

Life Expectancy Figures Skewed by Infant Mortality

On CBS News Sunday Morning today (2/19) they were discussing a former president, William Henry Harrison. It was an interesting history lesson and the announcers seemed to have their facts right. Except for one thing. After mentioning that Harrison was sworn into office at the relatively advanced age of 68, one of the announcers marveled that the life expentancy then was only 39 years; back then it would have been like a 110-year old was becoming president. NO, NO, NO!

The main reason that life expectancy figures were so low back then (and now, in impoverished parts of the world) was because of the enormously high infant mortality rate, which drastically skewed the figures. Being a human being in the first couple of years of life was very, very dangerous, with fatal illnesses a commonplace, tragic feature. Once someone did make it out of early childhood, they stood a good chance of making it into old age eventually (unless they were sucked into a war not of their own making, that is). So being 68 was NOT some extraordinary feat of longevity, as the TV person implied...

Gainesville Five Points (Half-)Marathon Tomorrow

Since I'm not going to run in the Five Points Half-Marathon tomorrow after all, you might wonder why I still maintain an interest in it. Well, here are a couple of "points" about Five Points...

First, I haven't abandoned the idea of resuming running in 13.1-mile half-marathon races (or even the 26.2-mile marathon) at some time in the future after medical conditions have been reconciled. To immediately and deliberately ignore a local event that I had planned to be a part of sounds an awful lot like sour grapes to me. I still hope this race is a resounding success tomorrow and for years to come, regardless of my participation level. Second, I sit around at home all the time watching sports like baseball, basketball, and football without any personal interest in engaging in these sports (especially baseball). Somehow, though, I've convinced myself that they are important. But look, I still run: today I ran 6 miles. So instead, I should be enthusiastic about the sport with which I have been personally involved. Now if my local newspaper The Gainesville Sun will only share my enthusiasm enough to cover this race in an adequate, professional manner...

In today's (Saturday) edition, there was a long article about tomorrow morning's marathon portion of the event with a map of the course. The half-marathon was virtually ignored, though. And forget about today's 5K race! Still, at least they give the overall event some coverage. Saturday.

I don't expect anything about Five Points in the Sunday paper, but on Monday they should publish the results of all three races (at least the top finishers) and feature an article describing how this important local sporting event went. Also, there is an interesting angle to the race concerning weather conditions. I remember how bitterly cold it was two years ago when I ran in it (28 degrees at the start). Tomorrow morning's local weather presents its own problems: the temperature at race's start will be 63 (not bad in itself: I ran a full marathon last year when it was 62) but with a high chance of rain and even possible thunderstorms. Uh-oh...

Brainstorm/Worksheet: a Daily Habit

I have a habit, usually while sitting in a Starbucks or someplace similar, of opening a notebook up to a blank sheet and just filling it up with various ideas that pop into my head. This brainstorming worksheet activity, in which I engage at the beginning of most days, usually evolves toward the end of the “session” into a systematic planning of what I intend to accomplish over the course of that day, along with a breakdown of my schedule and how I can achieve my different goals within the ever-too-present constraints of time limitations imposed on me from diverse sources.

After I finish brainstorming on my worksheet, usually written in a spiral notebook, I tear off the section that has my proposed “schedule” on it, fold it up, and stick it into my shirt pocket (I always wear shirts with pockets unless I’m running), to be consulted from time to time as the day unravels and I become more prone to lose sight of my goals. Hopefully, by the end of the day, I can review it with the satisfaction of having lived up to my self-imposed standards and having progressed, if only a little, in my personal endeavors.