UF Pond, Off To The Side

While bicycling through the University of Florida campus the other day, I noticed that there were some places in the middle of this densely urban college campus that are relatively more secluded and conducive to contemplation and retreat. This locale, while not exactly of the order of Walden's Pond, is only a short walking distance from Turlington Hall, Marston Science Library, the Hub, and the Reitz Union. There is a bench to sit on here as well (from where I snapped this shot). The building in the background is part of the UF College of Agriculture (IFAS).

GOP Stonewalls Obama Nominee, Then Confirms

I recently witnessed a Senate floor vote, delayed for months by Republican filibustering, which finally confirmed Thomas Perez, Obama’s nomination for Assistant Attorney General in charge of civil rights, by a vote of 72-22. The Judiciary Committee, back in March, had passed on Perez’s nomination to the full Senate with a resounding 17-2 approval vote. This meant that most of the Republicans on that committee had approved of Perez. And most of them stayed with their committee positions during the final recent floor vote. But in the intervening period, they voted to stonewall the nomination through procedural tactics and filibusters.

This policy of the GOP delaying EVERYTHING as much as possible, even when there is little opposition, runs contrary to the spirit of cooperation and comity that is necessary within the Senate to accomplish anything. With the track record they have demonstrated, I don’t think that the Republicans will be as successful against the Democrats in next year’s elections as they were in 1994, when they won control of that body. The Dems are “hip” to what they are up to and are making sure that the country as whole is aware of it. However, in order to hold on to some seats, there will have to be a much larger level of voter participation than has usually been in case in non-presidential election years.

Seven Unbeatens in NCAA Football

The 2009 NCAA football season is shaping up to be quite different from the previous few years in one important respect: this late in the season, there are still seven teams with undefeated records. They are Florida, Texas, Alabama, Iowa, TCU, Boise State, and Cincinnati. Except for Florida and Alabama, one of which will have to lose since they are in the same conference and would play each other for the title, these teams can pretty much run out the remainder of the regular season and remain unbeaten. Potentially leaving six teams with perfect records.

Now who gets to decide who can play for the national championship if this happens? If we had instituted a three-week, eight team playoff system as has been proposed for several years already, this situation would not present much of a problem. But we seem locked in, year after year, to this asinine way of determining who gets to play for the national title in football. Unlike, I might add, any other sport, high school, college, or pro. And even unlike small college football, which does employ a playoff system.

Most likely, Texas will play the winner of Florida vs. Alabama for the national championship (presuming these teams continue to otherwise remain undefeated). Leaving four other unbeaten teams shut out. It might be argued that TCU and Cincinnati are from much weaker conferences and, as such, their records don't qualify them for a shot at the title. But how about Iowa and Boise State? Iowa is in the Big Ten Conference, one of the premier leagues in the country. And all Boise State did was manhandle Oregon, a Pacific-Ten team that has won the rest of its games, including a recent 47-20 drubbing of perennial power Southern Cal.

But then again, maybe I'm writing this article one or two weeks too early. There is still plenty of time for some of these "perfect" teams to go down in ignominious defeat. Like Cincinnati, who is playing Pittsburgh in a few weeks. Or Alabama, who is playing LSU. Even Texas, the most likely candidate for a national championship slot, will have to win its Big 12 title in a playoff game against the winner of that conference's Northern Division, not a done deal.

Finally, A Little Cooler

Yesterday morning at six, when I stepped outside to go on my morning walk around my neighborhood with my wife, it was a very chilly 52 degrees. I had to wear a sweater and long pants, but Melissa was fine with a tee shirt and shorts. After the first lap around the block, I had to add a jacket to my sweater, it was so cold to me. So here the two of us were, Melissa and I: one dressed for summertime, and one for the winter. Toward the end of our two-mile walk, though, I was shedding the extra layers of clothing. And when we walked back up to our front door, I looked down the street and saw two little boys walking down the block to their school bus stop, huddling under their heavy winter clothing. At 52 degrees.

That's the way it is here in north central Florida at this time of the year. I've gotten so accustomed to the unseasonably late summerlike temperatures that moderately cool weather seems cold to me. But I think this will quickly change, as we should finally be settling down into a cooler pattern.

Oh, for autumn to finally arrive!

UF's Century Tower in Background

....with the dreaded "Potato Monster" sculpture in the foreground.

November: Conspiracy Theory Month

[With April as "runner-up"]

Welcome to Conspiracy Theory Month! November has all kinds of goodies in this area: the 2000 presidential election and its Florida recount, Paul McCartney's supposed fatal automobile accident in 1966, and of course, the John Kennedy assassination in 1963. But as a matter of course, I think I'll be writing from time to time this month about a whole range of conspiracies, real and imagined, whether or not they involve the month of November.

Conspiracy theorists, if you read them, usually have developed their own very specific timelines and locales for the events that they are focusing on. This can create quite a creepy "alternate universe" scenario of sites that in reality were most likely totally devoid of relevance to the matter at hand. The most prominent of these, as I see it, is the "grassy knoll" in Dallas, from which extra gunmen were purported to have secretly shot President Kennedy in the early afternoon of November 22, 1963. But after Oliver Stone's conspiracy-heavy movie JFK, now I can stage my own "conspiracy fantasy" tour focusing on New Orleans and Dallas.

So what are some of the more famous conspiracy theories that have permeated our collective consciousness over the years? Here are a few that come to my mind:

--JFK's assassination wasn't just by lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald acting on his own, but was a plot carried out by various parties aggrieved with the President, acting in a highly improbable unholy alliance with each other. Depending upon the conspiracy theorist, these suspected parties include extreme right wing southerners, the CIA, organized crime, Castro, and even Lyndon Johnson.

--Robert F. Kennedy's assassination in June 1968 wasn't a lone job by Sirhan Sirhan, but rather a conspiracy with another gunman on the scene. With such a crowded setting in which this crime occurred, this view is one of the more utterly preposterous conspiracy theories (to me).

--Much less preposterous-sounding is the idea that the 4/4/68 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tennessee was a conspiracy. I personally have a difficult time accepting the notion that a career criminal such as James Earl Ray would have the motive to take out this great civil rights leader on his own. But as a hired gun or someone set up to be there when it happened? Makes more sense.

--The "9/11 was an inside job" notion carries a lot of weight with some people because those accused of plotting these horrendous attacks enjoyed enormous political gains from the attacks and were freed to carry out policies (Patriot Act, invasion of Iraq) that would otherwise have never been tolerated by the American people.

--Similarly, Franklin Roosevelt has been accused of setting Pearl Harbor up for attack in December 1941 in order to formally bring America directly into World War II, which it had successfully avoided for more than two years, thanks in large part to the enormous popular and political opposition to direct combat involvement.

--The idea that nobody ever really went to the Moon and that it was all done and broadcast from a remote movie set in the American West was reinforced by movies like 1971's James Bond flick Diamonds Are Forever, which featured a scene where our hero busts through exactly such a set and commandeers the "Lunar Rover" in a chase scene, using it to flee from the bad guys. The later film Capricorn One lays out the Moon Hoax conspiracy theory more directly by portraying a staged mission for a Mars trip.

--A personal favorite conspiracy theory is the "Paul is dead" narrative, first promoted in 1969 by some Detroit radio DJs and still enduring to this day. Much of the supporting "evidence" for the notion that Beatles great Paul McCartney died in a November 1966 car crash is given in the form of subsequent Beatles lyrics and album cover clues.

--Aliens gave us advanced technology, which we "reverse-engineered". The crash at Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 (which actually never happened) gave the US government access to higher technology in areas like fiber optics and digitization. I see this theory as an application to modern times of Erich Von Däniken's "ancient astronaut" ideas, in which he expresses that space aliens visited Earth in ancient times and were responsible for pyramids and giant statues. In both "theories", the implication is that humans are too stupid to think up anything on their own, and therefore outside help must be the explanation for great innovations.

--A whole new wave of conspiracy theories is being generated by wacko, paranoid elements of the political right about our current President, Barack Obama. Which is giving rise to a mirror-conspiracy theory being put out by the political left, laying the blame for derogatory statements about the President on the Republican Party and corporate interests opposed to the Obama agenda.

Well, let's see what the coming month holds for this blog regarding conspiracies. I personally plan to invest some time reading up on them and then reporting some of my findings. Should be a lot of fun!

Typical UF Bulletin Board

Just one of those wild and crazy university bulletin boards with wild and crazy ads placed in a wild and crazy manner. It used to tick me off to see someone covering over an entire bulletin board with a stack of the same ads and a stapler. Now I just laugh. This board, though, has a healthy degree of variety to it. Maybe the folks stapling bulletin board ads have become more socially conscious nowadays....Naaah!!!

Philip K. Dick's Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said

I just finished reading the late Philip K. Dick's novel Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said. Evidently written in the midst of the turmoil in America of the early 1970s with law-and-order and abuse-of-power president Richard Nixon and the political radicalization of college students across the nation, this novel takes that setting and extends it into the future. Into a world dominated by a repressive police state where a deceased Nixon is worshipped as a manifestation of Christ and students are imprisoned in ghettos across the land following a second Civil War.

Flow My Tears has as its protagonist a charismatic television idol, Jason Taverner, who is secretly a "six"; this is a person who was the product of genetic engineering in the past (of the "sixth" experimental group, that is). One day, Taverner wakes up to find that his existence has been wiped clean from the memories of all those he knew. As a matter of fact, there is no record of his life anywhere (remind you of a couple of Twilight Zone episodes?). And his lack of an identity places him in imminent danger of being arrested and sent off to a forced labor camp.

Not being someone who likes to spoil the endings of novels, I'll just say that the explanation for Jason Taverner's predicament was quite impressive, to say the least. As Philip K. Dick has done in other works of his that I have read, his characters are complex and interesting. The way they think and present themselves to each other reminds me a little of Ernest Hemingway's style. Dick's writing style also resembles Hemingway in its simplicity. All to his credit, in my opinion.

So get a copy of Philip K. Dick's short novel Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said (I checked it out from my public library). It is a science fiction story of the best kind: one that shares some profound insights into how society and technology may merge in the future to create crushing oppression, as well as providing interesting angles on what is real and the nature of subjectivity.

Assuming Total Personal Responsibility

I've noticed a trend over the years as I've watched various sports events and the subsequent spin that participants and their coaches have put on their performances. The tendency, as I have observed, is to take a rather myopic view of what happened, with all of the lessons learned from the event being based on one's own performance, without regard to whether the other side was having an especially good or bad game.

When I was much younger and had athletic aspirations, I would sometimes play beyond my abilities and have spectacular games. I would run a football kickoff back for a touchdown, score three quick goals in soccer, or play devastating defense in basketball, repeatedly stealing the ball from my opponent. But although these performances represented personal peaks in my achievement, when they happened my opponents tended instead to berate themselves and each other for "letting me win".

I see this all the time on TV. Florida's Tim Tebow throws a couple of interceptions against Mississippi State and it's all about "what's wrong with Tebow", not "wow, Mississippi State's pass defense is playing extraordinarily well". Of course, coaches and players alike will make the perfunctory "good sportsmanship" remarks praising the other team's performance. But their overwhelming emphasis is on their own performances, almost as if the other side were a constant, unchanging element that had little or no impact on the game's outcome.

As dishonest as just looking at one's own performance and ignoring or diminishing the opposition's may be, it is actually a healthy attitude, in a manner of speaking. As an athlete or coach, I can't control how my opposition will play on any given day. The only thing I can do is to optimize my own (or my players') performance by insisting on taking personal responsibility for every outcome. Only then can problems be identified and strategies enacted for overcoming them in the future. The idea of assuming total personal responsibility in an interactive contest may be a lie, but it is a useful lie, nevertheless. And this principle can carry over beyond sports, into general living.

The principle of "it's not what happens to you, but rather what you do about what happens to you that matters" is a corollary to the above "lie", and has its own limitations as well. We should each of us focus on our own behavior while still being cognizant of what others do. There are some things in life we have little or no control over. Still, we need to act AS IF we had control, nevertheless. Because, sometimes, we really do!

Heffalumps and Woozles in Hogtown

I loved the Disney cartoon series Winnie the Pooh, along with the spin-off movies. One of my favorite characters was timid, easily-frightened Piglet, whose chief fear was of the Heffalumps [elephants] and Woozles [weasels] he mostly imagined were lurking about the Forty Acre Wood. Here in Gainesville, we're building up a local "fright" about some wild animals as well: hogs and coyotes.

I've already reported a few days ago on the exploding wild hog population northwest of Gainesville that is spilling into residents' yards. But coyotes abound here as well, and they are not as confined as their porcine "pals". A typical coyote family, as Monday's Gainesville Sun article pointed out, has a range of about ten square miles. And they can be anywhere, even in the heart of the city. Coyotes have attacked both cats and small dogs, although they generally quickly shy away from humans. Lately though, coyotes have been seen about openly in broad daylight, a new development for Gainesville.

I have personally seen neither wild hogs nor coyotes in Gainesville, but I recognize that they are around. I think the main predators to be feared are neither of these animals, which for the most part are just trying to survive and mind their own business. Rather it is the age-old nemesis that people have always had to be on the watch against: other people!

And I don't just mean violent people who commit or threaten to commit crimes of aggression like the mugging incidents that have recently dramatically increased in frequency here. Put some people behind the wheel in a motor vehicle and just walking down the street can be a frightening experience, with all of the distracted, aggressive, and/or alcohol-impaired drivers out there. "Our" Heffalumps and Woozles? Not boars and coyotes, but muggers and poor drivers!

Short, Random Notes

Not a "tweeter" by nature, I generally prefer to write a paragraph or two (or more) about topics that pique my interest. But there are a few things floating around that I'd like to get off my chest in a hurry, so here goes:

--Senate Majority Leader, Democrat Harry Reid decided to push for a health care form bill that has a much stronger public option in it than most observers had foreseen, especially after the lame Baucus version had passed the Finance Committee. Good, I think that I am back on track with supporting health care reform as it currently being legislated.

--A couple of weeks ago, I thought that we in north-central Florida were experiencing the last vestiges of hot summer weather. But I was wrong, as the hot, muggy weather has returned with a vengeance. Ugh!

--The New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies will play in this year's World Series, with the first game starting tonight. Go Yanks!

--My local rag The Gainesville Sun has a new topic that it has been playing with recently on its editorial page: air-boats on Orange Lake and how appropriate or inappropriate they are. My take is that since the chief objection that residents on the lake have against air-boats there is that they keep them awake at night with their noise, simple common courtesy would dictate that people refrain from operating them late at night and just stick to the daytime and early evening hours. After all, I don't go out and mow my lawn at three in the morning! It's amazing how many conflicts could be alleviated were people to show some simple consideration and respect for each other.

--I was watching a football game last night between the Washington Redskins and the Philadelphia Eagles. Not caring much for either team, I arbitrarily decided to root for Washington in this game. And became infuriated by their total incompetence on offense. I can accept my team losing a game because the other team outplayed them. But when my side continuously fumbles away the football and incurs ridiculous penalties, that's when my patience wears thin. I think it's going to be a while before I root for the Redskins again in a game.

--With the H1N1 flu vaccine currently being in such short supply, the parents of young children are being placed in a bind. On one hand, they are continually being warned to get their kids vaccinated because this flu primarily affects children and has already caused many deaths. Shame on parents who don't get their children vaccinated, right? On the other hand, if the vaccine isn't available anyway, then WTF?

U.S. Supreme Court on Web

Back in 2002, I took a history class at the University of Florida probing the history of the U.S. Supreme Court since the American Civil War. The professor was Elizabeth Dale, whom I regard as my all-time favorite professor at UF. The course focused on the development of the Court's philosophy by examining various crucial decisions through the years and their written opinions, both majority and dissenting. So I already have a bit of experience in reading and interpreting Supreme Court rulings.

The recent confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor as the new Supreme Court Justice replacing retiring Justice David Souter spurred a new interest within me regarding this very important institution. And I began to explore websites about the US Supreme Court. Naturally, my first choice was the Court's own site, and for all practical purposes it keeps me abreast as to its schedule of cases, oral arguments, and decisions, complete with majority and dissenting opinions.

For example, a case challenging the constitutionality of an aspect of federal campaign finance law was reheard back in September, giving new associate justice Sotomayer a chance to make her debut. The fall session officially began about three weeks ago, the first heavily-publicized case of which concerns the constitutionality of a war memorial in the form of a cross, erected back in the 1930s at a relatively remote spot in California on then-public land. But these aren't the only cases being heard, and this site lists them, along with word-for-word transcripts of the oral arguments (poor grammar and all).

I find following these arguments to be quite an intellectual challenge, and have come to respect the justices (and arguing attorneys) for their skill and precision with the law and its oral presentation.

In these arguments the ideological division in the Court between conservative and liberal justices is often difficult to perceive. Each justice is truly an independent thinker and often contributes unexpectedly novel outlooks on the cases being examined.

I recommend following the US Supreme Court website to get a true feel about how cases are argued, and to get the complete decisions along with their written opinions. The level of discourse during oral arguments is much higher than anything you would hear on news/talk television or radio, and that includes C-Span broadcasts of the proceedings of the US House of Representatives and the Senate. I look forward to a future day when I will be able to view Supreme Court oral arguments live on my TV screen. But until then, I still have them to read (and in very large print, too) on my computer.

From Stephen King to Philip K. Dick

I have nearly reached the end of my exploration of Stephen King's literary works, with only a couple of novellas from his Four Past Midnight collection left to read before I begin on his soon-to-be-published novel Under the Dome. I exclude from my reading history his novels The Green Mile, Misery, and Firestarter, as I saw the movies first and already know their outcomes. Obviously, I am a fan of King's, one of his "constant readers" as he likes to put it. And I am now looking for another writer of comparable worth to focus on.

There are plenty of candidates out there, but I think I may have settled on the "winner": science fiction icon Philip K. Dick (1928-82) who wrote numerous short stories (a few of which I have already read) and 36 novels. Some of these novels fit more into the genre of general fiction than science fiction. During his lifetime, Dick experienced difficulty getting many of these published. But during recent years, his collected works have been resurrected and have received much critical praise. I just finished reading one of these novels: Humpty Dumpty in Oakland. It is a stark, brutal depiction of class divisions, real and perceived, existing within America and the creeping paranoia that can arise from them that can sometimes lead to disastrous consequences. And the novel's main characters, Jim Fergesson and Al Miller, are unforgettable and masterfully revealed.

I may have lucked out with Humpty Dumpty in Oakland, but I am already experienced with Philip K. Dick's shorter works and know of their quality. My favorite short stories of his are Impostor (later adapted into a movie of the same title), Fair Game, and The Days of Perky Pat. So I'm pretty confident that I will be enjoying plenty of good reading in the weeks to come. I am currently reading a science fiction novel of his: Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said.

One other thing: Dick's novels tend to be on the short side, by today's standards that is. I hear Stephen King's new novel will be around a thousand pages long; Philip Dick's novels tend to be about 200-300 pages in length. I kind of like that.

Where I Stand

I thought it might be interesting to just lay out in a blog article a list of statements spelling out where I stand on various issues.

War in Afghanistan:
The U.S. should not be engaged in nation-building in Afghanistan. It should concentrate its efforts on fighting Al-Qaeda, which is an international terrorist network, and not the Taliban, which is an indigenous political/military movement in that area. Our efforts should be to put a wedge between the more moderate elements of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. We should reduce our visible presence there, else we will be seen as just another in a string of foreign occupiers, attracting greater and greater resistance and popular opposition.

Health Care Reform:
I would prefer a simpler system like Britain’s, where citizens could get their medical needs met without going broke, going through masses of red tape, or restricting any career or lifestyle changes for fear of being denied future insurance coverage. I’m a realist, though; this is the U.S. and the political environment won’t tolerate that (preferable) change. But I would at least like a low-cost public option, especially if everyone is going to be mandated to purchase health insurance. So I’m quite skeptical about the current legislation being process through the Senate (the Baucus bill) which I see as an abominable betrayal of the whole point of health care reform in the first place.

Energy:
I would like to see Americans using safe, nonpolluting, domestic, and renewable energy sources to power their vehicles and electricity. But I’m realistic here: let’s just concentrate for now on keeping carbon emissions low and encouraging domestic sources. And that means (environmentalists can now gasp in horror) building nuclear reactors and using the cleaner coal technology that has been developed in recent years that keeps carbon emissions low. Why? Simply that (1) I would like the planet to survive and (2) it sure would be nice for my country’s leaders to feel that there wasn’t an extreme crisis every time an oil-rich nation underwent a political crisis. And as an important corollary to (2), it should help to keep us out of military adventures abroad. Of course, those intent on military intervention and war will most assuredly come up with other excuses for concentrating their efforts on certain nations while ignoring others.
The answer to our energy problems also must encompass better conservation, which is already under way as greater technology allows it and more people become educated to its importance.

The Howl With Running

This past week I stepped up the mileage in my daily runs around my neighborhood. My increase in running may be due in large part to the fact that I have begun to listen to my mp3 player during my runs, which makes the experience more pleasurable and helps take my attention off the exertion involved in covering the increasing distance. Today I upped the distance to 5.09 miles. In the process I ran down roads that I hadn't run down before. Roads that went by houses with fences that had big, ferociously barking dogs behind them.

As I was completing my sojourn through these new stretches of my home subdivision, I began to hear barking--a small dog's barking, seeming to originate from near the house I was running toward. But I couldn't see the dog as I passed this house, although I could still hear the barking. As I turned the corner onto another street, I began to hear mournful howling originating, it seemed, from different directions. But no dogs to be seen! Truly an eerie experience, worthy of late October and Halloween with its spookiness!

And then it hit me. I lifted up my mp3 player and looked at what was playing: Seamus, by Pink Floyd, from their Meddle album. And featuring a lot of loud, funny dog barks and howls. And I began to howl, too. With laughter. Hope I didn't scare anyone.

Media News and Commentary

There are still some TV channels, notably the traditional “alphabet” networks ABC, CBS, and NBC, which still attempt to show even-handedness in their presentation of news and commentary. And for the most part (with the one glaring exception of Lou Dobbs), I would say this about CNN. But there is another practice that I find disturbing, both by its presumed, deliberate bias and by its burgeoning popularity. And that is having shows hosted by confirmed and unapologetic ideologues who construct their programs to promote their own opinions and to put down opposing views. Lou Dobson, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Ed Schultz, Keith Olbermann, and Rachel Maddow all fit this mold. Since I tend to be more liberal than conservative, I also tend to watch MSNBC’s Schultz, Olbermann, and Maddow more. But were I conservative, I doubtless would think that those right-wingers on Fox were the tops. There are some hosts, like MSNBC’s conservative Joe Scarborough and liberal Chris Matthews, who express their views openly but also try to conduct an open airing of the issues with a diversity of opinions expressed.

There are also three increasingly ugly aspects to many of the ideologically driven shows on cable news channels. First, ad hominem personal attacks on political adversaries are commonplace, as if the merit of an individual’s views on an issue should be determined by some breaking news, true or false, about their personal lives. Second, reasonable debates about important issues have been distorted on these shows into morality plays between the heroic good guys and the evildoers bent on destroying everything good about America. And third, those who supposedly are simply providing a media forum for opinions and debate have become so powerful nowadays that elected representatives are now basing their votes and statements on how they think this tiny number of powerful people will react to them. Choose your favorite, Fox or MSNBC: both sides are guilty of this!

Don't Sell Tebow Short

College football sensation Tim Tebow, the senior starting quarterback for the Florida Gators, is indisputably the most popular athlete in the history of this university. He is idolized everywhere and has even been dubbed with the appellation "Superman". Yes, Tim is indeed living within a bubble of intense adulation. But once he graduates, what will happen to that bubble?

Although Tebow has won the Heisman Trophy (and may win a second this year) and has participated in two national championship teams (and may participate in a third this year), the professional talking heads on television and radio seem to feel that his prospects for success in professional football aren't all that bright. Tim, apparently, isn't playing for a college that uses a "pro" style offense that displays and develops quarterbacks as passing "machines". Instead, at UF he coordinates a rather complex spread-style offense that isn't used much in the National Football League (although the Miami Dolphins are doing something similar with its"wildcat" formation). But just because Tebow doesn't play in a standard pro offense does not mean that he isn't fully capable of excelling in one.

I have seen Tim Tebow as he walks up to the line before plays, and he is quite adept at reading the opponent's defense and making last-second adjustments. As a matter of fact, his behavior just before a play reminds me a bit of NFL's famed quarterback Peyton Manning. Tim is also a very intelligent runner who knows how to follow his blockers as well as how to stretch out a run for a few extra (and often crucial) yards. Add this to the fact that Tebow has a very strong and accurate arm and I would say that the NFL team that ends up drafting him next year may well be setting itself up for quite a rosy future.

So don't sell Tim Tebow short just because of the type of offense that he has to operate in. Instead, realize that, with whatever role that has been assigned to him, Tebow has fulfilled it well beyond expectations. I think he will continue this pattern into his professional football career. And beyond.

Colorado Family Balloon Hoax

The whole setup seemed a wee bit suspicious when a boy, suspected of stowing and floating away in his inventor father's makeshift huge helium balloon (which just happened to have a compartment that would accommodate the child), turned up, apparently at home the whole time that the hours-long frantic search was going on. Before calling 911 to report their child's disappearance, the family reportedly contacted a local television station, further fueling doubts. Now it looks as if felony charges will be filed for this charade. The parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene, were hoping for their own television reality show and, according to the Associated Press, have already appeared in the ABC reality show "Wife Swap". All of which makes me wonder about the mental state of the average Amercian television viewer.

If the reality show garbage permeating the television channels nowadays were shown back in the 1960s, they would have been disasters. Viewers back then expected better programming and got it. But today, these scripted shows depict people going about their lives generally behaving like nincompoops, reflecting upon their nincompoopish behavior in short "interview" segments, and then returning to further nincompoopery (and even further reflection). While channel surfing, I keep haplessly landing on these sorry excuses for actual programs, and I have begun to fear for our future. Do regular viewers really care about what is going on with the people portrayed on these reality shows? The prospect makes me shudder.

When I first heard of this Colorado balloon incident and its outcome from a co-worker while at my job, I thought that the writers for the satirical cartoon series South Park couldn't have dreamed upon a better idea for one of their episodes. I could just see it: father thinks Butters has floated away in the balloon. After finding him in the box, he angrily shakes his fist and says "Butters, you're grounded, go to your room!" To which little Butters says "Dang it!" and trudges upstairs. But now that we know of the phony nature of the incident, I would have to change the story's emphasis to the foolish adults in South Park (Stan's sometimes-conniving father comes to the forefront as a possible lead role).

All that the South Park writers really have to do with this story is to report it straight as it happened!

Baseball Hides Its Playoffs on TV

What happened to Major League Baseball? We are in October and the playoffs are already in the second round, with the winners of the current series to play each other in the World Series. But none of the major networks or sports channels are broadcasting the games [Correction: see below]. Only Atlanta's WTBS seems interested in letting viewers in on the action.

I have to suspect that MLB itself may be responsible for the playoffs dropping out of sight on television. They have made their regular season games harder for the average viewer to follow by making them part of their own premium channels. They seem to be interesting in soaking the American public for as much moolah as they can muster by making their product more difficult to access over the regular channels.

Which brings me to the two industries not covered by the Federal Antitrust Act: the health insurance industry and ...Major League Baseball. The fact that baseball has special legislated protection should, I would think, make it more of a publicly accessible sport. The regular broadcasting networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox) should be carrying all of the playoff games, but they're not. It seems that health insurance and baseball, both beneficiaries of legalized monopoly status, can't do enough to antagonize the public with their voracious greed, well beyond reasonable notions of making a respectable profit.

But now that I'm writing about baseball, I might as well comment on the playoffs. I would like to see a World Series match-up between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers. It would pit ex-Yankee and now-Dodger manager Joe Torre against his old team. I would get to see my favorite player, Derek Jeter. And it would revive the ancient rivalry between the two franchises which goes back to the years when the Dodgers were in Brooklyn. But should the Los Angeles Angels and/or Philadelphia Phillies come back in their series and win (actually, the Phillies are leading their series with the Dodgers), that would be all right with me, too. Just let me watch the World Series on "ordinary television", O.K.?

Correction: Well, I just checked my TV listings for today and Fox IS carrying one of the games (Yankees vs. Angels). Just one of them. The other game today, between the Phillies and the Dodgers, is on TBS. But Fox should be showing both of them. Apparently, during the weekend football reigns supreme over everything else (except for those horrid reality shows). In spite of some coverage, I think that baseball is shooting itself in the foot by not insisting on contracts with general broadcasting networks for the widest viewership possible.

Suggestion for C-Span2

If I had my way, C-Span2, which carries live United States Senate floor proceedings, would operate in a different manner. I would keep their live Senate coverage, but afterwards I would rebroadcast the day's proceedings. The second go around, though, I would cut out all of that dead "quorum call" time and concentrate on the actual floor speakers and votes. Although the votes take up a lot of time, they do reveal a lot to me. Not only can I see how different senators vote (and sometimes switch their votes around), but I can observe how they personally relate to each other.

For example, although Illinois senator Roland Burris has tried to fit in and chat with other senators, I have yet to see others warm up to him. At the beginning of Al Franken's tenure, I noticed something similar, with his Democratic colleagues often seeming cool to him (major exceptions: fellow Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar and Vermont Independent senator Bernie Sanders). But the junior senator from Minnesota has been doing something unexpected and interesting. Instead of just hanging around his fellow Democrats to try to converse and chum up, Franken often crosses over to the GOP side during floor votes and hangs out with his Republican counterparts. And he seems to get along quite well with them.

But back to compressed same-day rerun coverage: I have more than enough analysis, summaries, and commentary from other news/talk stations. C-Span2 HAS the Senate proceedings, and as such should rebroadcast them each day that it is in session, starting at about 6 pm (unless that body is holding an extended session, that is). I would much rather see my elected representatives up there explaining legislation, pro or con, conservative or liberal, than some corporate hack talking head who is only accountable to his/her boss, instead of to the American people!

Turlington Plaza, UF

Hiking Can Be Such a Boar

A few weeks ago I visited Devil's Millhopper, a sinkhole designated as a State Geological Site that is located only a couple of miles from my home. Around that time, I discovered that, about three miles further west on the same road was located San Felasco Hammock State Park, a much larger park than Devil's Millhopper. The hiking trails at this place are numerous and much longer than "DM"'s, whose only trail was .6 mile in length. So I envisioned myself eventually getting off my butt and heading down there (with my camera, of course).

But alas, a story has been circulating in the Gainesville news media of late regarding the large population of wild boars running rampant within San Felasco Hammock. As a matter of fact, residents in homes near the park have experienced boars in their yards, an obvious threat to their well-being (and much more so to their pets). Well, if that's the case, I'm not all that keen on walking or jogging down miles of remote stretches of hiking trails with wild boars waiting in ambush for me (that scene near the end of the movie Hannibal still weighs heavily on me). Maybe this is an overblown concern. After all, hiking out in the country will naturally increase the possibility of encountering some dangerous animal, like a bear. That just goes with the territory, right? But the way it is being reported, these boars are aggressive and exploding in numbers.

So who needs to go down to Hallow-Scream at Busch Gardens to get a scare this October? Just pay a visit to your friendly, local state park...and let your blood curdle into anguished screams of mortal terror!

Moore and Dean Slam Baucus Bill

This morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe show starring independently-thinking conservative (how refreshing) Joe Scarborough, guests Howard Dean and Michael Moore expressed their firm opposition to the Baucus health care reform bill recently passed out of the Senate Finance Committee. Both, like me, see it as a forced mass giveaway to the powerful insurance companies at the expense of the very American people who are suffering the most from health insurance's increasing unaffordability. And Moore, like me, stated that this piece of legislation is worse than the status quo. Meaning, for this time around at least, that Howard Dean, Michael Moore, and Bill Irwin are rooting for the stalwart hard-line anti-Obama Republican crowd in the Senate to somehow be able to defeat this horrendous (Moore called it "deplorable"), fraudulently-named "reform" bill. Moore also pointed out that the highly touted provision within the Baucus bill outlawing denial of coverage for preexisting conditions carried only a $5,000 fine, which to an insurance company would be minuscule compared to the medical bills they would be paying for were they to provide coverage in those cases.

I know that the Democrats are calculating that any health reform bill is politically better than no bill. But when the American people see what has been perpetrated upon them with the Baucus legislation and its catering to the health insurance cartel, I predict a much worse political toll eventually being taken on the Democratic Party.

Is there any chance at all for getting a public option included in the health care bill? I keeping hearing of a "trigger" proposal floating about. Senator Schumer wants to amend the legislation to let individual states decide whether or not to allow a public option for consumers. To me, the idea of my federal government legally mandating that, simply because I "exist", I must then purchase health insurance at manipulated high prices from private corporations exempted from the Anti-Trust Act, sounds like something concocted by an extreme fringe group of the political right. But so-called center/left politicians are standing in line to endorse it! This to me is nothing less than a betrayal.

French Fried Alachua

Back in the late nineties, artist John Henry was commissioned for a sculpture for the University of Florida campus next to the Marston Science Library. When it was installed in 1998, the painted aluminum sculpture, titled Alachua, was widely criticized and reviled as "French Fries From Hell". But it has withstood the test of time, and now I kind of dig it, actually. The other day I rode my bicycle down to the UF campus and made myself look like a tourist, pulling out my camera and taking some photos of the "sights". And I couldn't let my trip pass without capturing the Great Masterpiece. Here is that masterpiece (or monstrosity, depending on your point of view):

Obama's Nobel Peace Prize

I have mixed feelings about President Barack Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. He certainly didn't seek out the prize, and was just as surprised as others were to hear the announcement that he had won.

I think there are basically two kinds of Nobel Peace Prize winners. One is someone who has, while outside of official politics, demonstrated a commitment to human rights, nonviolence, and peace. Examples of this are Martin Luther King and Lech Walesa. And former U.S. president Jimmy Carter and former "next president" Al Gore, whose awarded accomplishments occurred after their political careers were over. The other kind of winner is someone inside politics who seized the opportunity at a crucial historical moment to create conditions for cessation of war and the establishment of peace. So Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho won it for negotiating the end of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam and Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin likewise won it for their efforts in the Middle East. But where does Obama stand in all this?

All I see Barack Obama doing is going back to the responsible kind of foreign policy that used to be the norm before the bellicose George W. Bush administration. He is certainly not a pacifist, but rather the nation's commander-in-chief whose war decisions should be based on facts and reality, not pie-in-the-sky hopes for success. He believes in using diplomacy as a means to further American national interests. This is nothing special, as pre-2001 presidencies have traditionally and wisely done this.

No, it is clear to me that the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Obama as a signal of hope and expectation. But the President was elected in the United States by its people, not selected by a small committee in Norway. He has no obligation to cater to the hopes of the Nobel folks, as honorable as they may be. Rather he should continue on his present course of taking care of America and Americans. If he does, that in itself should promote peace and human rights.

Graffiti Wall and Memorial

The graffiti wall on SW 34 Street here in Gainesville wasn't always such; originally, it was a stark white wall that would periodically suffer graffiti and then get a whitewash. Finally, with the other "graffiti wall" on SW 13 Street at the Archer Road intersection getting a mural painting commissioned for it, authorities finally gave in to the idea of there being at least one place in town for folks to vent out their feelings in paint. The only rules were: no profanity (at least in English) and no hate language. And no offense taken if someone else paints over your message the very next day!

In August 1990, Gainesville was rocked severely when a bitter, violent convict from Louisiana drifted into the area and decided to kill people at random as "payback" for his years of confinement. The result was the Gainesville student murders, which claimed five lives in the span of less than a week. That murderer, whose name does not bear mentioning, has since been tried, convicted, and executed for the crimes. A few weeks after the murders in 1990, a couple of people took it upon themselves to paint a memorial for the slain students on the graffiti wall. And ever since then, for over nineteen years, this one section has been preserved and maintained. Also, in the street median facing the wall, is an official memorial, with five trees each representing a slain student.

Here are some photos of the wall in general, the painted memorial, and the official "trees" memorial.

Summer’s Last Hurrah

Friday morning I got out of bed just before six to go on my daily two-mile walk around the neighborhood with my wife. I turned the TV on to the 24-hour local weather conditions and forecast. And was horrified to learn that, on that day deep into the autumn season, almost in mid-October, temperatures would climb in the afternoon to 95 degrees with 99% humidity. That would put the heat index well over 100! And the temperature at 6 AM? 77 with 99% humidity! Outside, it was if a thick invisible blanket were hanging over us. The walk was a sweaty experience, but I would have perspired profusely even had I simply sat outside on my porch for the same period of time.

Temperatures have continued to stay high, both during the day and night. It won’t be until later next week when we get any relief.

Yes, I’m quite ready for chilly weather. But the unlike with places further north, I’ll just take chilly, DRY weather, thank you. You can keep the snow and ice, wherever you might be.

And now that the Moon apparently won’t be blown to smithereens after all, I can look forward to improving weather conditions later this month. And maybe some genuine, lasting FALL temperatures.

UF's Lake Alice

Collective Soul, Stale and Fresh Music

Collective Soul is a long-established rock band whose biggest hits were from the early-to-mid 1990s. Their breakout hit, Shine, was from their first album Hints, Allegations, & Things Left Unsaid. They followed this up in grand style from their self-titled second album, producing several tracks that received a lot of mainstream rock radio airplay: December, Smashing Young Man, The World I Know, Gel, and Where the River Flows. Then, in early 1997 the group's third album Disciplined Breakdown came out, with the first track Precious Declaration being released with much fanfare and radio play. After that, though, only a trickle of their songs were played on the radio (Heavy, She Said, Vent, Why Part 2, and Counting the Days). And of those latter "hits", they are now very rarely played on mainstream rock stations in their "past hits" rotation.

Although Collective Soul has continued as a band and keeps releasing new material, they are not receiving the same radio play as they used to, at least for that new stuff. But from what I can tell after listening to their more recent music, they have maintained their high standards and have continued to produce very good songs that are just as good as (if not better) than that string of hits they had from their first two albums in the mid-nineties. And yet, those ancient hits continue to get played a lot, while their fresher material is ignored.

And here is another example of my problems with commercial radio as it exists today. With all of the choices that exist on the albums that today's popular rock artists offer, the stations' programmers only play certain tracks over and over and over again. Not so on Internet radio, though. If you tune in, for example, to AOL Radio, you will hear deep tracks from many different prominent artists, as well as from a few who are breaking in on the musical scene.

I think that if I hear December played on Rock 104/WRUF one more time, I'll scream, and that would be very embarrassing for me if I were out in public when it happened. So I'll just play it safe and avoid listening to them altogether!

Pro Baseball Regular Season Over

The Major League Baseball regular season has finally ended for 2009. Of the teams I had been following, only one, the Minnesota Twins, actually made it to the playoffs. They stand to be eliminated quickly, their first-round opponents the New York Yankees (with baseball's best record this year) having beaten them in all seven games played between them this season. And the Yankees won their first playoff game yesterday against the Twins 7-2.

This year I had concentrated my attention on the American League Central Division as well as on the two Florida teams and the Chicago Cubs. Although the Cubs, Rays, and Marlins all had winning seasons, none of them were good enough to make the playoffs. And the AL Central was baseball's worst division, with only Detroit having a winning record besides the Twins. Speaking of Detroit, they led the division for almost the entire season but lost it in the final three games, including a special one-game playoff that Minnesota won in 12 innings. I expected Kansas City to do poorly, but I was astounded at the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Indians, not only for how poorly they did, but also for how quickly their management gave up on them and traded star players away (notably Jim Thome from Chicago and Cliff Lee from Cleveland).

For the playoffs, I plan to root for Minnesota until they are eliminated (which will probably be sooner than later). Otherwise, I'll pull for New York to make it to the World Series. In the National League, I'd like to see the Colorado Rockies make it or, as a second choice, good ol' Joe Torre's Los Angeles Dodgers.

Yes, I would like to see a nice, frigid (if not snowy) World Series in late October, alternating between Denver and Minneapolis. Oh, did I hear you just say that Minnesota now plays their home games in an enclosed park? Party poopers!

Festivals and Falsehoods, On Two Counts

Count #1:
The little shopping center Magnolia Parke, in which I am currently sitting swilling java at my favorite Gainesville Starbucks, held their annual Greater Gator Beer Festival on Saturday (outside, not inside Starbucks). I'm reading the article about it in Monday's Independent Florida Alligator. The header reads "Festival offers free beers". It looked like a great deal, especially since samples were offered of beers from around the world, even from countries like Ukraine, Israel, and Guatemala. One of the attendees is quoted in Maria Piquet's article as saying, "My favorite kind of beer is free beer. And there's a lot of it here." Only one problem: as the penultimate paragraph in the article points out, admission to the "free" festival cost $25 in advance and $30 at the gate. Huh? I vaguely remember this discrepancy from reality with last year's festival!

Count #2:
On a sadder note, Dove World Outreach Center, the church that instigated the "Islam is of the Devil" controversy in Gainesville, decided to picket the Pride Parade and festival at about the same time that the "beer festival" was going on. In the same Alligator issue that wrote up about all of the "free beer", Dove World's leader Terry Jones was quoted as saying (of their protest), "It may get nasty; homosexuals can be very aggressive." What really disturbed me the most was the church's use of children in their demonstration against gays. They were carrying around signs denouncing homosexuality and sporting "Islam is of the Devil" shirts. I feel some severe manipulation was going on here, both by their parents and by Terry Jones. On the positive side, the general public pretty much rejected Dove World's message and cheered the festivities. This year's events marked the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City, widely hailed as the beginning of the gay rights movement as it has become today.

"Free beer" or "Homo leads to hell" (as one of the Dove World signs read): choose your falsehood. Or better, use your ability to reason critically and reject both.

At the time, I was oblivious to both "festivals"; I had driven in late from Jacksonville Friday night, done the Heart Walk Saturday morning, and went to work that afternoon. I believe I know why both the beer festival and Pride Parade were held this weekend: no Gator football! And realizing this, it might be a good idea to see what my hometown will be up to the next time UF football has a bye week.

Gainesville Heart Walk

This past Saturday morning, Melissa and I participated in the American Heart Association's annual Heart Walk, a three-mile walk through the Health Park (4300 NW 89 Blvd) to raise money for fighting heart disease and promoting preventative education. We walked as part of Melissa's Av-Med team and had plenty of teammates with us.

Upon arrival, everyone assembled in a large soccer field. Some groups (ours included) had their pictures taken. And then the walk commenced. It was a very twisted, winding path with many turns and bends. My main concern on the walk was avoiding being run over by "ninja" strollers pushed by aggressive mothers!

I did notice an interesting phenomenon on the walk: Melissa and I, walking at a brisk pace, would keep catching up with and passing the same slow walkers (one was an elderly gentleman walking with a cane). Apparently, there were some "wormhole" shortcuts for which suitable "candidates" were selected by the walk's volunteers to help them get through the walk. H-m-m, does the Science Channel know about this?!

It was a fun, pleasant experience for us, but I still prefer a good jog when I'm looking for some exercise. Here are some photos:

Choral Concert in Jacksonville

Last Friday I drove to Jacksonville to attend a concert in which my son was singing. It was the 14th Annual Intercollegiate Choral Festival, presented by Jacksonville University and held on its campus at Terry Hall. Featured were choirs from three Jacksonville colleges: Florida State College at Jacksonville, the University of North Florida, and of course Jacksonville University.

Each college had a section of the show in which it presented its own choir and selected pieces. I was impressed with all three, especially considering the relatively short span of a few weeks that they had to prepare for this concert. The conductors for Florida State College, UNF, and Jacksonville University were R. Wayne Bailey, Dr. Cara Tasher, and Dr. Jon O. Carlson, respectively.

Since the presentation was considered to be part of the students' classes, those not onstage sat in the audience to learn from the other performances. But for the parents and friends of the singers, this presented a problem because of the few empty seats left over in the hall. Although I was near the concert hall door when general seating opened, I was barely able to find a seat. And many people were left standing on the side.

Before the concert, I walked around the Jacksonville University campus, which lies on the eastern shores of the St. Johns River. First I tried out their library, which closed at 6 pm on Fridays. That should have given me a clue about the size of JU. I then walked around their campus, and its smallness was instilled within me. Oh well, I just sat around and waited for the 7:30 concert.

And it was worth waiting for.

P.S., during the concert I was treated to a delightful happily and loudly babbling baby three seats down from me, accompanied by scornful reactions from some of those seated nearby. Yippee!

Dolphins Ready for Henne, Let's Go!

When injury-prone former New York Jets quarterback Chad Pennington signed up with Tony Sparano's resurrected Miami Dolphins, it was with one aim in mind: give the team some breathing room at this position while it grooms a young franchise quarterback for the coming years. And Pennington was an outstanding success last year, leading the Dolphins to an improbable divisional title after a 1-15 record the previous season. But now Pennington is out for the season with an injured shoulder from last Sunday's third game. And his contract runs out after this year.

Now it's time to bring in the future. Chad Henne, drafted by Miami in 2008, starred at Michigan, leading them in 2006 when they made a serious run at the national championship. The following season he led his team to a bowl victory against the Florida Gators and their Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow. He is poised, strong, and trained in pro-style offenses. He could very well turn out to be another Dan Marino, for all I know. And now, with the Dolphins starting off with an 0-3 record, Henne will be able to step in without the withering pressure that might have befallen him at the beginning of the season to repeat or improve upon last year's sparkling season.

Henne will not have to shoulder the entire burden for the Dolphins' offense; Sparano has perfected the "wildcat" offense that often inserts other players, notably running back Ronnie Brown, into the quarterback position to run special plays. And now-backup quarterback Pat White, another possibility in Miami's future, will be able to contribute in that formation as well.

Miami still could recover from its bad start and have a good season, even making the playoffs. But I wouldn't count on it. Better to regard this as a rebuilding year and enjoy watching a potentially great quarterback develop on the field.

I just hope that the Miami Dolphins' management, led by Bill Parcells, will recognize the situation that they are in this year and will not make rash changes in the team's roster or coaching staff. I believe that they have almost everything in place to be a yearly playoff contender in the upcoming decade.

Chad Pennington deserves a great deal of credit for this because he helped greatly to restore their confidence in their ability to win. Although, after this season he may be no longer with the team, I will always appreciate his efforts and wish him well wherever he goes (except when he's playing against Miami, that is). But then again, with all of his injuries, he may want to pursue his options off the field.

Staring Match With Grackle

Crying Babies Rule (and Drool)

I was leaving Barnes and Nobles the other day when a young couple walked in, the father holding an infant. Suddenly, the baby began to loudly wail, in a way that babies do which usually indicates that it's either feeding or diaper-changing time. Immediately, as if on cue, Daddy handed off little Junior to Mommy. Inside me, a longtime inner struggle began anew to suppress myself from breaking out into open laughter.

I don't like to see babies in distress, mind you. But I can tell when a cry is based on fear or pain, and when it is based on hunger, wetness, sleepiness, or just plain orneriness. And it is when the latter reasons provoke loud crying from little babies in public that I get so tickled. I like to see how the mother or father deals with the situation, but it's also amusing to note the irritation and discomfort that others around the baby express, especially when they're trying gamely to suppress it. The main locales for my perverse mirth at others' expense are assemblies, churches, theatres, restaurants, and stores. I find it particularly amusing when someone is speaking at an assembly and a baby suddenly begins to howl. First I observe how the person holding the baby reacts to the situation. They usually go down a list of options that could placate the kid. Sometimes, if all goes well, this can take several minutes. Meanwhile, others in the audience are beginning to nervously fidget and exchange furtive glances with each other. Then emerge the coughers and throat-clearers among the audience who think that, by doing this, they can discretely send a message to the parent to "get that brat out of here". And finally, it's fun to observe how the speaker carries on while essentially being heckled by a loud baby.

I also enjoy it when a baby is just learning to speak and is in the babbling stage. Often, in the same settings I've mentioned, one of these babblers will be suddenly inspired to go off on a loud rant, and nothing the adult-with-custody can do will shut the little tyke up. Hilarious!

I think little babies are cute, but I also think that we're all wired that way in order to make sure that they are collectively cared for. Nevertheless, we often find ourselves in conflicting social environments where babies simply don't fit in. And it's here that the pretensions to cultivated, civil demeanor that so many of us labor so hard to present to society crash down, simply because a baby is doing nothing more than acting like a baby. Of course, no one openly blames the baby: it's those inconsiderate parents who won't remove it from our presence!

When the Beatles performed in Germany before they hit the big time, the crowds would shout out "Mach Schau!", meaning "Put on a show!". And then the future "Fab Four" would liven things up a bit onstage (e.g. John Lennon once performed with a toilet seat around his neck). When I see a baby in a public place acting subdued and quiet, I often feel a "Mach Schau" moment coming over me. Or, in Mr. Toilet Seat's own inspired words: "Cry, baby, cry"!

Football Reflections

As I have mentioned before in previous articles, I decided for this season to deliberately focus my attention on college football's Pacific-Ten Conference. And I haven't been disappointed. So far, I have seen games involving half of its teams: Southern Cal, California, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington. There is one trend I am noticing for this season in the Pac-10: its teams seem to be taking turns knocking each other off. USC lost an big upset to Washington and California (which I had thought was good enough this year to go undefeated) was mauled by Oregon 45-3. After the USC loss to Washington, TV and radio analysts were bemoaning it as a big loss for the conference. But the Pac-10 has done well playing teams outside the conference. UCLA handled Tennessee and Kansas State, while Oregon defeated Utah, which heretofore had held the nation's longest winning streak. I'd like to see some of the other schools in the conference play, but that may be a problem due to my work schedule and is dependent on what is chosen to be shown on TV.

Much closer to home, the University of Florida Gators received a scare last Saturday when Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow suffered a head concussion during the third quarter of their game against Kentucky. Florida has a bye week coming, so this will give its sick and injured players some time to recuperate before playing undefeated LSU on the road two weeks from now. But a concussion is nothing to be taken lightly, and Florida has a very capable, talented backup quarterback anyway in John Brantley. I say give Tim some time to heal. Putting him back in too soon could be disastrous.

In professional football, the three Florida teams are having awful seasons. Miami and Tampa Bay are each 0-3 and Jacksonville is 1-2. I don't see any of them recovering enough to make the playoffs, but the Dolphins and Jaguars do show some promise and may put together decent regular season records by season's end. The ownership of Tampa Bay, however, ruined the team last year by firing its Super Bowl-winning coach John Gruden and revamping the team. The Buccaneers are much weaker this year, and although I had entertained higher hopes for them at the season's start, I don't see them finishing higher than dead last in their division.

Roman Polanski and the Little People

Every few months, my local newspaper The Gainesville Sun puts out a special section in which every convicted sex offender living in the county is prominently displayed, with their pictures and current addresses. There are some pretty vicious types included here, but there are also plenty of borderline cases as well. For example, often it happens that a young adult male will have a sexual relationship with a girl in her late teens (but under 18). Usually nothing comes of this, but if a disgruntled relative chooses to file a complaint, that young man can come out of the experience with his life essentially ruined, cast as a sex offender alongside the forcible rapists and child molesters. And usually, such a person is not in a position of wealth or influence to manipulate the legal system with high-priced attorneys or special plea deals. With this in mind, let's go look at Roman Polanski's legal situation.

Roman Polanski is a famous, critically-acclaimed, and award-winning film director whose personal life has been scarred by terrible tragedies. His mother was a victim of Hitler's atrocities at Auschwitz and his wife, actress Sharon Tate, was brutally murdered by the Manson gang in 1969. But in 1977, Polanski pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year old girl (which is statutory rape) in California. He claimed that he had struck a plea bargain with the presiding judge, who subsequently went back on the deal. Polanski then fled the country and hasn't returned since. This past weekend, the 76-year old director was arrested in Switzerland and will undergo extradition hearings for his return to the United States.

From what I have read in the Associated Press article in front of me, Polanski's victim, Samantha Geimer, had reached a settlement with him many years ago over the incident and wants all charges dropped. And that incident did happen 32 years ago, with Polanski now in his late seventies, by all accounts a reasonably-advanced age.

But what about the poorer and less-connected folks who have paid their debts to society but have to bear the stigma of their crimes for the rest of their humble lives? Sounds like a major example of a double standard here. I have nothing personally against Mr. Polanski, and I thought his 1974 movie Chinatown was one of the greatest films ever made. His tragic personal life elicits sympathy from me, as well it should from all of us. But justice should be blind and fair. If others are forced to carry an enormous burden for their crimes, even after they have served their sentences, then this fugitive should at least be forced to show some public accountability for his. Instead, I see him surrounded by slavish admirers who are indignant about their idol's arrest, and who apparently think (and may be correct) that there are two sets of laws: one for the "little people", and one for celebrities like Roman Polanski.

Slapstick Lost

Recently I was browsing the movies section of my local library. The pickings were slim, not that I'm complaining. After all, I'm grateful for whatever I can check out for free from my library. This time I came up with an old Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes flick (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes) and a tape with three old Three Stooges shorts, all of them classics starring Curly Howard. The Holmes movie was predictable and passable, but when I got to Moe, Larry, and Curly, I ran into a wall.

As I watched the slapstick trio perform their stunts, I began to ask myself what I ever saw in them. They weren't funny at all; there was no depth to anything in the films. Finally, I had to shut off the tape because I couldn't stand it any more.

As a kid, I liked the Three Stooges. But it was a period in the fall of 1975 when I stopped being a fan of theirs and became a fanatic. Miami's then independent TV station WCIX/Channel 6 would offer a mid-afternoon hour-long show of Three Stooges shorts on weekdays. And I would sit there watching them all, cackling to high heaven in the process. I remember thinking then what talented artists the Three Stooges were and how they had such a pulse on what was really funny. What happened during the last 34 years?

Somewhere along the line, I got the idea that for something to be funny, it had to have some kind of intellectual or satirical value to it. I lost the capacity to perceive humor in simple, fun slapstick comedy. Sure, those old Three Stooges comedies were terribly flawed at times (sometimes playing up to racial stereotypes of that era). But they did have their hilarious moments. Example: the "boys" once had a job delivering ice to a ritzy home, situated at the summit of a long series of steps. Curly repeatedly struggled up the stairs lugging a big block of ice, only to have a tiny, dripping cube remaining when he reached the top. Doing this over and over again may have seemed pointless, but it was all in the timing and HOW it was done. The Stooges injected their infectious personalities into their comedy, and I think that, on some subconscious level, I regarded them as friends.

So I'm going back to that tape and trying to see things a little more as I did back when simple absurdities used to crack me up a lot more.

Gainesville's Possum Creek Park

Last Friday, on my way back home from getting my flu shot, I finally decided to stop off at the city park closest to my home: Possum Creek Park, at 4009 NW 53 Avenue. This park, originally just a big field where soccer games were occasionally held, has evolved over the past few years into a multifaceted park, with an excellent children's play area, a covered picnic section, a vast field, the field's perimeter as a suitable jogging path, and a rudimentary hiking trail through the adjacent woods.

More work is still needed to make that hiking trail "work". Unlike the other three city parks I've been to so far [1][2][3], this trail has only a small, temporary sign marking its entrance. The path itself isn't very clear, either. And there were no benches along the path for visitors to rest on. But the biggest problem I saw with it was when I reached a small creek (presumably Possum Creek). Instead of a small wooden bridge over it, there were two small, very wobbly logs that even a raccoon might have second thoughts crossing. Beyond the "crossing", I could see the trail continuing further.

I love Possum Creek Park's gigantic field, and I'm confident that more work will be done on the trail. I plan to make a follow-up visit in a few weeks to see if I'm right about that. I've read in my local newspaper that plans are afoot to add a small skateboard practice area to the park. I support this, as the park has more than plenty of space to accommodate some skateboarding. But the proposal has elicited heated editorial letters opposing it. I can't understand why people who may never have had any inclination to write a letter to the editor suddenly feel that this is such a major issue in their lives, with all of the much more significant controversies surrounding us!

Here are some of the customary photos of my visit.

Minor, Embarrassing Blog Errors

I don't know whether or not you, the reader of this article, have your own blog or not. But if you do, you may be like me in that I like to occasionally go back and read previous blog articles I've written. And for the most part, I come away from my reading trip into the past with the eerie feeling that someone else wrote my stuff; I would not have been capable of it. But then something often appears to jerk me back into reality and convince myself of their true authorship.

That "something" is a goofup in my word usage or grammar that I should have picked up before my original publication. After all, I usually check over each article five or six times (along with spell check) before publishing it. Even after publication, I will often miss a mistake while re-reading it. But then I'll suddenly discover an error and be thoroughly embarrassed for a couple of minutes while I go about correcting it. While doing this, I am usually wondering how many people from different parts of the world noticed it and came to the conclusion that I was a completely uneducated doofus/klutz!

This leads me to wonder whether or not it would be more effective to have another proof-read my articles instead of doing it myself. For when I read my own work, I am reading it as my mind would want it to appear, not necessarily as it actually is. I've discovered the same phenomenon when proof-reading papers written by my wife or my children. They will have already checked their own work and then let me look at it, with me pointing out various obvious mistakes that they overlooked. It's almost as if, in the act of writing, we mentally save a copy of our product. And when reading what we've actually written, we instead read our intended product instead of what is actually on the screen or the paper.

I am definitely not of the same writing ilk as that of the late science fiction legend Robert Heinlein, who once claimed that he was so confident about his writing that he never went back over his manuscripts once he had written them; he would just send them straight to his publisher. But then again, I don't know that his publisher didn't employ some folks who discretely polished up the self-assured legend's rough spots!

Dim View of UF Streetlights

I got off early from work the other night, around 11 pm. I decided to drive around the University of Florida campus and see whether I could find a well-lit stretch of sidewalk to run on. I had run in the past around the campus in the daytime and had a great time then. My reasoning was that running at night would be better: I could easily find a place to park my car and the temperature would be cooler and more pleasant for a good jog. I wanted at least to be able to have a visible surface to run on so that I could avoid obstacles (and injury).

Well, I drove and drove. Nothing was well-lit, but there were plenty of shadowy shapes (I'm presuming they were UF students) walking around the very dimly lit campus. If I were one of them, I wouldn't be too happy having to walk around late at night with such poor lighting. The street lamps seemed to be of a sickly dampened pink that did precious little to illuminate the area. I tell you, it may have been tough on the students, but it was tougher with me, since I had to be extremely careful to avoid running over some of the human shadows who seemed to leap out into the street from the darkness.

Just as I was getting close to ending my fruitless drive around campus, I approached Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, where the football team plays its home games (and the Goodyear blimp hovers overhead, and the deer and the antelope play). Suddenly, the lighting became very bright around the deserted pigskin coliseum. I looked over to my left at the O'Connell Center, where the basketball team plays its home games. Once again, bright lights bathed this entire deserted area. But once I got to University Avenue and turned right, the crappily-lit gloom returned, and with it, the many shadow figures scurrying about.

Why do I get the feeling that there are two UFs? One is the financially-strapped academic University of Florida with its budget cuts, departmental closings, higher tuition, curtailed student admission and enrollment, and staff layoffs. The other is the Gator Nation, rolling over in money with lavish sums spent on facilities, equipment, and staff.

I can't say whether or not the different emphases on quality night lighting is part of the dichotomy between academics and athletics there. It just struck me as being awfully stupid. What the hell is going on at my old alma mater? In any event, night running there is off. I did run around my block the other night, and I have a well-worn "micro"-course in my backyard that I've run on quite a lot late at night. I guess for the time being that'll have to do.

Oh, by the way, Gainesville city streetlights suck, too! Walking the streets around here at night is like walking through the setting for a horror movie. The only things missing are the zombies!

Falling Through Musical Rabbit Holes

Back on September 9, I was tempted to write an article about the Beatles' strange White Album track Revolution 9 (I was going to title it "Numba Nine, Numba Nine, Numba Nine"). But since "9/9/09" has come and gone, I have to find a new excuse to write about this tight, upbeat melody. Just kidding. About the tight, upbeat melody, that is.

Revolution 9, a track that would more precisely be called a "collage of musical and audio images" instead of a song, represents more the solo abstract work that John Lennon had been doing with Yoko Ono at that time. The other Beatles reportedly opposed it being including on the White Album, but Lennon insisted on it. To my delight.

Revolution 9 is many things: sinister, mysterious, apocalyptic, conspiratorial (much of it is recorded backward, including the haunting "numba nine" rap which, when reversed, sounds like "turn me on dead man"), and sad. I appreciate all of that, but there is another element to this piece that I find myself looking for in other music: There are parts of Revolution 9 where I find myself falling into the musical equivalent of Alice in Wonderland's rabbit hole.

A musical rabbit hole, what is that? To me, it is a section within a piece where everything breaks down into chaos for a while. I've experienced this phenomenon listening to other songs as well. Here are a few:

Eight Miles High by the Byrds
Shapes of Things by the Yardbirds
Tomorrow Never Knows by the Beatles
Flaming by Pink Floyd
One of These Days by Pink Floyd
Echoes by Pink Floyd
The End by the Doors
When the Music's Over by the Doors
Sky Pilot (long version) by Eric Burdon & the Animals
Legend of a Mind by the Moody Blues
Dazed and Confused by Led Zeppelin
How Many More Times by Led Zeppelin
Roundabout by Yes
South Side of the Sky by Yes
Close to the Edge by Yes
The Gates of Delirium by Yes
Autobahn by Kraftwerk
Danse With Me George by Ambrosia
Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head by Sufjan Stevens

The trick with the sections of disorder in these songs (usually in their middle, but not always) is to somehow bring back some sense of order to the song, as a transformation brought about in large part by that chaotic period.

What is special about Revolution 9 is that the "rabbit hole" experience IS the body of the piece and periods of relative order are the exception rather than the rule. But for a period of time in the fall of 1972 (specifically the entire month of October), Revolution 9 (Paul, George and Ringo's objections notwithstanding) was the song that I listened to the most, often several times a day. And here I am, 37 years later, and still harboring fond thoughts of that wacky track. And still happily falling through musical rabbit holes.

So It's Paul Kirk

Now that I've gone back and changed "Charles" Kirk to "Paul" Kirk in yesterday's entry, I can begin today's. I was watching Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick at the podium, about to announce his selection for interim senator to the open seat formerly held by Edward Kennedy. I had wanted Dukakis to get it, but when the governor mentioned Paul Kirk by name early in his address, I knew this was not to be. But who is Paul Kirk? Oh, just the guy standing directly behind Governor Patrick, that's all.

I wish Paul Kirk a productive interim period as Massachusetts's junior senator. With him having worked previously on Senator Kennedy's staff, I'm confident that Mr. Kirk is attuned to the late senator's priorities and will support them during his brief, but important stint there. Of course, neither Paul Kirk, Michael Dukakis, nor anyone else could truly replace Ted Kennedy.

I also congratulate Al Franken for no longer being the supremely junior senator!

Senator Dukakis?

I just read in my Gainesville Sun newspaper this morning that the Massachusetts state legislature has approved a measure granting authority for the governor to appoint an interim senator to replace the late Edward Kennedy until elections are held a few months from now.

Democratic Governor Deval Patrick is reportedly considering, among others, former governor, 1988 Democratic presidential nominee, and all-around good guy Michael Dukakis as one of the choices to fill this seat. Although I'm sure that there are plenty of good candidates for the temporary post, I think Dukakis would be a very welcome presence in the United States Senate. Whoever does get appointed, though, shouldn't be among any of the politicians expressing interest in running in the upcoming senate election. Although those might all be great senators, a distinguished interim senator like Dukakis with no further designs on the seat will keep an appointee from running with the advantage of incumbency, even if that is only for a few weeks.

I have always felt that Michael Dukakis would have made a wonderful president. During my long run (since 1976) of voting in presidential elections, I felt the most strongly in favor of Governor Dukakis over anyone else I supported in an election, before or since. But, alas, he was the first Democratic presidential nominee to run into a very slick, heavily financed, and brutal Republican campaign attack machine. Why, had he been elected, everyone would have dirty water and convicted murderers across the country would be furloughed en masse to kill everyone. And for those of you who survived? Well, you'd have to burn your American flags! What was so dismaying to me in 1988 (and in subsequent elections with their own mudslinging themes) was that millions of American voters actually bought into the crap being spewed out over the air about Willy Horton, Boston's water, and flag burning. Oh, and don't forget that Dukakis was a card-carrying member of the ACLU. That made him a communist, right?

As I have said, there are plenty of suitable possibilities for this interim post. The newspaper article mentioned three: Paul Kirk (a former Kennedy aide and DNC chairman), Evelyn Murphy (a former lt. governor), and Charles Ogletree (a Harvard law professor).

Onward to a full Senate body!

[Let's see if I can't get this published before the actual appointment is announced.]

Obushama

In spite of the vicious, hateful, and highly personal attack campaign being carried out against President Obama by the far right, he has continued to surprise (and sometimes dismay) his supporters by the high degree of continuity he has shown with the previous Republican Bush administration. Sometimes this continuity has led to a curious situation in which Bush supporters have attacked Obama for carrying out policies originally enacted under Bush.

The economic bailout did not begin under Obama, but rather under Bush as a clear-headed, pragmatic response to a severely tanking economy. The abrupt change in our government's attitude about restraint with banks and corporations occurred not with the transfer of power from Bush to Obama, but rather in September 2008 under Bush. Now would George W. Bush have pushed for a stimulus bill and government management of General Motors as has Barack Obama? Probably not, but then again who would have predicted his actions back in September? And much to the former president's credit (and unlike others of his administration), he has avoided publicly second-guessing our current president. In other words, a class act.

Although President Obama is merely carrying out policies in Iraq decided on in the previous administration, he is nonetheless being criticized for the Americans turning police power to the Iraqis (in Iraq, their OWN country, outrage of all outrages). In Afghanistan, Obama is worrying the left, not the right, with his escalation of our intervention in their civil strife there. And who is his Secretary of Defense? None other than Bush's Secretary of Defense: General Robert Gates.

With all of this continuity from Bush to Obama, the current furor over health care reform must be quite a relief to those who want to paint our current president as an extreme leftist, even a socialist. But even though Obama expresses a desire to reform the health insurance system in America, he has always been relatively weak in his enthusiasm (compared to other Democrats, especially his 2008 presidential campaign opponent Hillary Clinton) and (in my opinion) has shown far too much flexibility with those who would alter any legislation to the point where it would end up serving the interests of the health insurance industry more than the American public. So even here, when all is said and done, we may find Obama and Bush closer than they are currently being painted.

I think that those on the political left who are disappointed and increasingly worried about Obama's perceived drift rightward are more in line with reality than are his conservative opponents who only seem to be interested in "Chicken Little" reactions to everything he says or does. And as a final comment regarding the similarities between Obama and Bush, consider the following.

A president is in his very first year of office. It is the second Tuesday in September. And, either for the purpose of political self-promotion (say his detractors) or to encourage young people to learn (say his supporters) that president makes a well-publicized visit to a public school. Now which president I am talking about? I think you know the answer: both! Obushama!

Gainesville Traffic Circles

During the past few years, my current home town of Gainesville has fallen head-over-heels in love with the concept of traffic circles, having them inserted all over town in various types of traffic flow. There are large circles and small circles, each demonstrated here by a photograph. There is supposedly a two-fold rationale behind the "drive" for circles. One, they are supposed to enhance safety and reduce accidents. Two, they are supposed to enhance the flow of traffic and reduce stops.


As far as safety is concerned, perhaps there are statistics out there which imply that traffic circles are superior to traditional intersections in preventing accidents. But in a relatively large circle, such as the one pictured above, pedestrians and bicyclists are in a precarious position when trying to cross the street. In a traditional intersection with stop signs or a traffic light, a pedestrian can take advantage of the signs and signals to safely cross in front of stopped traffic. Not so with a circle, where they often have to walk out of their way, look very carefully, cross their fingers, and sprint across! Note the crosswalk in the photograph, a few paces away from the circle. Cars are supposed to yield to pedestrians here, but in practice they are in a relatively blind position coming out of the circle and are accelerating.

Being in a small circle has a different drawback. Cars entering circles are supposed to travel to the circle's right. This means that a driver wanting to turn left would have to go three quarters of the way around. In a large circle, this is obvious. But with a small circle, such as the one pictured below, I see as the general practice cars simply turning to the left in front of the circle. Now if there is another car entering the circle from the opposite direction, this creates the potential for a head-on collision.


Regarding the argument for enhanced and speedier traffic flow, I would agree with the use of larger circles. But one problem I have observed is that cars, instead of approaching the circle by cautiously slowing down, will often speed up to insert themselves in the circle between other cars. Not exactly safe! In those areas with small circles, traffic is usually pretty light. Here, four-way stop signs would do just as well while reducing confusion.

I understand and appreciate the efforts of those who want to improve our system of traffic with innovations, such as the traffic circle. But this innovation can often lead to confusion and leave out important considerations for pedestrian traffic.

Current Personal Top Ten Favorite Songs

The following selections of mine are not from the pool of songs on the current music charts and I have never heard any of them on my radio. As a matter of fact, I'm doubtful that any one of these songs made any chart, unless it was indirectly as a track on a charted album. But they do represent my own personal favorites at this point of time in September, 2009. By the way, all of them belong to the genre of independent/alternative music and have come out within the past six years.

#10: Flint by Sufjan Stevens
I have already written in this blog my praises for Stevens, who grew up in Michigan, lived for a time in Illinois, and then moved to New York (where he now resides). And who then composed works relating to each of his "states" (New York's was a commissioned work specifically about a bridge). Flint (the full title is Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid) is about that Michigan city and the despair and hopelessness that descended on it when the auto manufacturing industry there began to decline. The tune is sad and simple, ... and very heartwrenching.

#9: Neighborhood #2 (Laika) by Arcade Fire
In 2007 I heard Arcade Fire's Black Mirror, which was the first song that I (thought I) had heard from this exciting band. But I never went further with them until my sister, whose musical tastes I have respected since early childhood (she's the one who introduced me to the Beatles in early 1964) one day raved to me about how great they were. So I obtained their albums Funeral and Neon Bible. And she's right: they ARE great. To me, a lot of their music has a mysterious, almost sinister, doomsday slant to it. Neighborhood #2, which I usually just call Laika, is an excellent example. But their music is uniformly good, so you probably couldn't miss with anything of theirs.

#8: A Sunday Smile by Beirut
Beirut reminds me a bit of that opening funeral scene in Godfather Part II when very young Vito Corleone and his mother are in the funeral march for his father, accompanied by a very rough-sounding band. Beirut's founder and creative force Zach Condon runs a much more disciplined and virtuoso band, but the genre is similar: Mediterranean, Balkan, Middle East, and French traditional music dominates Beirut. A Sunday Smile is a sweet, compelling tune that inspired me to explore other songs from this singular band.

#7: Cause=Time by Broken Social Scene
The first album of Broken Social Scene, a Canadian band founded and creatively dominated by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, was simply instrumental ambient alternative rock. Subsequently, the two decided to bring in other talent and make vocal albums. And then their popularity soared. From their acclaimed second album You Forgot it in People, the track Cause=Time is definitely not for anyone overly sensitive to profanity, especially to the use of the "f" word. But unlike the case with others songs I've heard sprinkled unnecessarily with profanity, "f#$&" figures strongly in its message, especially with how it is used in this great song's final line. One of the great cynical songs that I've heard recently.

#6: Merchants of Soul by Spoon
One of may favorite songs from 2006 was Spoon's hit I Turn My Camera On, but I haven't investigated this group until just recently. And now I can report that I haven't heard anything of theirs that I don't like! Merchants of Soul is a track that is marked by its relentless beat, gradually progressing to a crescendo reminiscent of Ravel's Bolero (but much shorter and simpler). Probably the most danceable tune on this list, it epitomizes most of Spoon's music, which is difficult to listen to without wanting to get up and dance to it.

#5: Pittsfield by Sufjan Stevens
The Pittsfield in this song is in Illinois, not Massachusetts. Stevens paints a poignant, sad lyrical picture of someone looking back at his childhood and the ghosts inhabiting his sometimes very bitter family memories. It is a very emotional and tender piece.

#4: Fiery Crash by Andrew Bird
Andrew Bird is quite a musician, both at creating and performing. He is an accomplished violinist and whistler. Imagine someone with the musical songwriting ability of Lennon and McCartney, the lyrical creativity of Dylan, the production skill of George Martin, and the voice of ... Ringo Starr! That's quite a mix (so maybe I exaggerate a little), but I think that Bird is terribly underrated. Fiery Crash is a scary and sad piece tackling human fate head on, with the "fiery crash" as the ultimate payoff. To me, it carries great undertones about 9/11 and the sometimes unexplainable circumstances and decisions that people experience and make which either put them in the center of a tragedy or fortuitously cause them to avoid it altogether.

#3: Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head by Sufjan Stevens
Some of Sufjan Stevens' tracks are showcases of his extraordinary ability to weave long, complex pieces around syncopated rhythms. I think Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head (from his Michigan album, duh) is the best of this type. Although I liked every part of this eight-minute-plus song, there is a part toward its end that sounds like a dying, off-key horn section, possibly a metaphor for the artist's feelings about his former hometown's decline. Incredible!

#2: Casimir Pulaski Day by Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens is also pursuing a career in writing. He already works as a literary critic and is reportedly soon to come out with a collection of his own short stories. But Casimir Pulaski Day is already one of his short stories, albeit in song form. The song's title, an Illinois state holiday falling on the first week of March, is only a point of departure from which Stevens presents his tale. This is one of the supreme tearjerker songs of all time, and I say that as a high compliment to Stevens.

#1: Calculation (Theme) by Metric
Metric is a Canadian group fronted by singer/songwriter Emily Haines. It reminds me a lot of the old new wave band Blondie (I like that: old new). I first heard of them through their 2005 hit track Combat Baby. I investigated them on YouTube earlier this spring and came across a very bizarre unofficial video to their song Calculation (Theme). Although this video actually had nothing to do with the song (as far as I could tell), it was so peculiar that when I got the album that it was on and listened to it, those images kept floating through my mind. Until I began to listen to the lyrics in earnest, that is. And I discovered that Calculation (Theme) is a treasure unto itself, with an especially mystical and ambiguous final line. As a matter of fact, it is that closing line, along with Haines' beautiful, personal singing style, that has made this my favorite.

New UF Study Center a No-Brainer

In Monday's Independent Florida Alligator, I read that the University of Florida is finally planning to build a 24-hour study center on campus. According to staff writer Thomas Stewart, UF President Bernie Machen said, "This is a project that is badly in need." To which I add a big "DUHHHH"!

Now various dorms at UF do have their own small study rooms for students who, for various reasons, find that environment more conducive to getting work done. But the great majority of students live off-campus. It can often be an ordeal for them to find a spot during their school day on campus to sit down and study. The libraries are terribly overcrowded, leaving either outside benches or eateries as study spots. And with laptop computers being such an essential part of a student's equipment nowadays, that just doesn't cut it anymore.

The study center project will take about $12 million in stimulus funds and will purportedly seat between 600-800 students at a time. It will be on the north side of campus, close to University Avenue and various eating spots nearby. Construction is slated to begin in July next year.

Since studying and learning are the main points behind going to college, one might have thought that making a priority of providing large, safe study locations around-the-clock on campus would have been a no-brainer. But it took Obama's stimulus funds, with their usage restrictions, to finally bring this self-evident need to fruition. Well, better late than never. But I think they could do with a couple more study centers as well.

Flashmob Hits Town, Feathers Fly

On the cover of Thursday's Gainesville Sun is a picture of a mass pillow fight taking place at Turlington Plaza on the University of Florida campus just before noon on Wednesday. Just before the event, participants seemed to arrive out of nowhere and suddenly came out swinging! A few minutes later, the battle abruptly ended and everyone dispersed from the scene as if nothing had happened. What did happen here?

It turns out that this was an example of a "flashmob", which is a planned event over the Internet (this one used Facebook) drawing participants from disparate parts to a specific location at a specific time to create a seemingly spontaneous event, usually doing something completely off the wall. And this pillow fight looked like a lot of fun. But I wonder.....

Suppose some evil mastermind resembling Lex Luther, Blofeld, or the Joker wants a mob at a particular place and at a particular time that suits his own secret nefarious designs (perhaps to serve as a diversion from a nearby "heist"). And he then plants one of these "flashmob" seeds on the Internet? I can see all hell breaking loose somewhere, drawing the attention of everyone (including the police). While the bad guys are pulling off their dastardly deed nearby unnoticed! But maybe this is just the cynical "goth" within me trying to paint a bleak picture out of simple fun!

One the other hand, mobilization through the Internet may already be used for bringing in mobs of protesters from the outside to attend town hall meetings of politicians and disrupt them. So my overtly cynical view of this practice may not be that far of a departure from reality, after all.

Flashmobs are definitely a phenomenon of our times, and one that bears a great deal of scrutiny. When a mass of people seems to come together out of nowhere and starts showing almost identical lines of behavior and speech, it's time to be suspicious. Especially if they're not carrying pillows!

300 Million: 551: 1

When considering health care reform, the number "300 million Americans" is often bandied about to hammer home the point about how important this issue is and how many it will affect. But for those "in tune" with the politics of representational democracy, the crucial number is 551, which is the sum of those in government who will actually be in charge of passing and signing that reform (450 in the House of Representatives, 100 in the Senate, and the President). But no, we learn now that apparently there is only one person who gets to determine what will affect all of us so drastically in the next few years (and beyond): Montana Democratic Senator Max Baucus, who is the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Senator Baucus wants to insure all Americans by MANDATING it, with fines levied on anyone not purchasing health insurance. And President Obama seems warm to this really bad idea, comparing it to mandated automobile insurance for drivers in many states (including my Florida). But driving is a choice and being alive is an inalienable human right. So I have to suspect a violation of our constitutional rights if anything like this is enacted. I mean, what about the homeless? Are the cops going to go around and start slapping fines on them?

As bad as this idea is, Baucus makes it much worse by scrapping the important public option that would allow for some true competition in the area of prices for insurance. Baucus believes more in the idea of a "pool/cooperative" option whereby the various insurance companies would voluntarily work together to create a list of choices. I think that it is unconscionable that a Democrat, representing a party supposedly looking out for the "little guy", would propose legally mandating expensive burdens on people who are already struggling to get by in life. The only winners in his perverse plan: the insurance companies, who by some strange coincidence happen to be enormous financial contributors to Senator Baucus!

I think it's time for the rest of the Democrats, including the President, to give the Montana senator's plan the boot and stop worrying about getting any Republican support for health care reform. Any plan that legally requires Americans to purchase health insurance (which to me seems very questionable constitutionally) MUST be accompanied by a strong public option that offers affordable plans. Otherwise, I think we would be better off with the status quo, as terribly flawed as it is. To me, the opponents of health care reform are railing about the wrong things. If they really want to kill health care reform and make it Obama's "Waterloo" (as GOP Senator DeMint has expressed), then they should seize upon the issue of mandated coverage and abandon all of this other nonsense they've been spouting. But I think I know why they won't: the health insurance companies, big friends to the Republicans, love mandated coverage with no public option that would have kept them honest with their prices. Talk about corporate welfare!

El Niño, For Better Or For Worse

It looks as if the Atlantic will be spared for the rest of the 2009 hurricane season, as the "El Niño" effect that shears off the tops of Atlantic storms is expected to be strong, going into next year. I say great, but there is a flip side to this good news. And it's very, very bad news!

The last time I can remember the El Niño being this strong was during the 1997 hurricane system. As is the case this year, the tropical storm season then just seemed to peter out into nothing. The next thing we knew, we were getting those great, cooling autumn fronts coming down (to northern Florida) from the northwest. But the next spring, we had a severe drought. And then the disaster began.

April, 1998 marked the start of a terrible plague of forest fires that devastated large areas of northern and central Florida. Probably the worst hit area was Daytona Beach's Volusia county and Flagler county to its north. But my own home county of Alachua didn't escape fires then, either.

I also understand that El Niño has been responsible in the past for terrible flooding in the U.S. Pacific coast states. So I have an ominous feeling that, the light Atlantic hurricane season notwithstanding, we're in for a bumpy ride in the not-to-distant future with fires and flooding.

Representative Wilson's Outburst

Last Wednesday, President Obama delivered his anticipated health care reform speech to a joint session of Congress. He received, as expected, a very enthusiastic greeting from the Democrats there and a reserved-but-polite greeting from the Republicans. Until he began his debunking phase of the address, that is.

What got the Republicans in the audience to suddenly perk up their ears was Obama's passionate characterization, as lies, of fringe arguments from the political far right about "death panels". Then, once he had the GOP's attention, the President went to the issue of illegal immigrants possibly being able to obtain health insurance through the proposed plans. He described this idea as "false", pointing to a clause in the bills prohibiting "illegals" from receiving proposed benefits. And then the GOP side of the aisle disintegrated into loud murmurs and hoots. In the midst of this break with decorum, Representative Joe Wilson (R, South Carolina) angrily shouted out "You lie!"

Obama went on with his speech, but afterwards there were many on both sides of the aisle very critical of Wilson for his outburst. To me, it just seemed to be a logical continuation of the hateful, aggressive tone of the so-called tea parties, the "birthers", vicious talk radio (and television) hosts, and shout-'em-down angry town hall protesters. Too bad, for I believe that the obnoxious congressman may have a point. Kind of.

I've seen this happen before in legislation, where something is ostensibly written into a bill, but which is effectively nullified when the bill's body contains no provisions for enforcement or financing of that item. A few years ago, the George W. Bush administration touted its "No Child Left Behind" legislation, which on the surface sounded great but in reality didn't provide for its own funding. I don't know for sure whether or not there are mechanisms within the proposed health insurance reform bills to enforce prohibitions against illegal immigrants receiving proposed benefits, but it seems to be a perfectly legitimate issue to raise. After all, if not enforced, this could cause the costs of this bill to soar to unsustainable levels. And the President himself has said that he won't sign a bill that adds even one dime to the national debt.

But there are avenues through which an opposition party can express their disagreements, more than ever before in today's world of multiple cable news channels and the Internet. Representative Wilson deserves to be castigated, but so do the other Republicans who raised their voices during that time in the President's speech. After all, it was their outbursts that created the setting for Wilson's shout-out.

With this recent dumbing down of conservative rhetoric, it is not the political left that is suffering. There are some great principles to the conservative way of thinking which complement the liberal outlook to make a dynamic, constructive political environment. But they are being obscured by the current hate speech and fear-mongering. When I see hateful, aggressive commentators like Ann Coulter, Dick Morris, Sean Hannity, or Glenn Beck, I know that I will NOT be receiving an honest, conservative take on the issues. And it's sad to see elected representatives like Joe Wilson copy their tone.

A Concert in Jacksonville

Yesterday I attended (with my son) a concert of original contemporary music at downtown Jacksonville's Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). The concert, titled Sound Effects: Music With UNF, featured musicians who were instructors of music at the University of North Florida. The violin, flute, euphonium, trumpet, cello, clarinet, various percussion instruments, fine soprano singing, and even an electric violin were showcased by these very talented artists. It was an enlightening and entertaining experience for us.

Besides the concert, we enjoyed browsing through the nearby bookstore/coffee shop. Sandwiched between this and MOCA is the Jacksonville Public Library. And across the street? A pleasant city park that reminded me a little of Gainesville's Bo Diddley Community Plaza (formerly the downtown plaza). Before the concert, we walked through the MOCA art gallery. Unfortunately, their policy is against picture taking; my photos are thus of the outside, which I thought was interesting enough anyway. Here are some of them, including one of the bridge spanning St. John's River.

Crashers

No, I'm not referring to those who crash parties or meetings uninvited, nor am I talking about folks with a propensity for automobile accidents or plane crashes. "Crashers", in the context of this article, are people who often express (usually with great passion and forcefulness) various personal goals but, while making a general effort to live up to their own words, will periodically suddenly abandon everything they purportedly stand for and behave in a completely opposite manner. I call this "crashing".

I see this pattern of behavior in others, but for the sake of this article, I'll confine the discussion to myself. Although I tend not to discuss my projects very much with others, I still have good habits I want to instill and bad habits to break.

For example, I want to manage money wisely by setting up budgets, recording financial transactions, saving money, always looking out for sales, and so on. But unfortunately, like many other people, I have a different side to myself, a side full of suppressed "wish lists" of expensive items and experiences that I have built up over my life.

Or take dieting. If I am so "into" a diet that every meal and snack is meticulously recorded and planned, day in and day out, that in itself can create some stress. But once again, a special occasion like a birthday or holiday may create opportunities for a "crash", as well as times of anxiety and negative emotional feelings. Suddenly, I have completely abandoned the diet and am the worse for it.

I could go on with other examples of "crashing". But instead of that, let me examine the phenomenon itself.

Crashers tend to rely a lot on reinforcing whatever project they happen to be on by talking almost incessantly about it to others, creating a "my way is the only way" scenario that makes it difficult for others to relate in a constructive and realistic way. For me, as I have mentioned before, this is one aspect of the phenomenon that doesn't seem to apply. When the crash finally does come around, the idea of the "now" being preeminently important pushes the project into the background. NOW is when the crasher needs to be relieved of emotional distress. NOW is when the big sale or big temptation is available, and it won't last forever (or so the crasher wants to believe).

I suppose that crashing is something that affects most of us to different degrees. I believe that people sometimes put standards and goals upon themselves that may be too severe and restricting. Instead, people should be less fanatical and more modest in their goal setting, while recognizing that others around them are individuals in their own right with most probably different outlooks on things and who deserve their respect. A change of attitude in these directions would give "crashers" the opportunity to live each day more fully without making them feel so deprived that they have to occasionally throw reason to the wind and suffer the consequences. And by respecting the others around them who may be on a different path, they will receive more open support and encouragement to stick with their goals. Perhaps my problem is that I don't talk ENOUGH with those I know concerning my goals for self-improvement, making their abandonment during a "crash" that much easier.

My 2009 NFL Predictions

In the past, I have indulged myself by predicting not only the divisional and ultimately Super Bowl winners in each National Football League season, but also the orders of finish for each and every team within their divisions. Well, I really don't know that much about who is good and who isn't. But I have my hunches, so I will give it a "partial" go with my predictions. By this, I mean that this year I will predict the divisional winners and wild card teams (and Super Bowl participants and winner), but not the also-rans. Well, here goes my predictions for the 2009 NFL season, which is slated to begin this weekend.

My favorite team (by far) is Miami. The Dolphins made an incredible turnaround last year, going from 1-15 to 11-5 and winning a division title. But although I see them possibly making the playoffs this year as a wild card entry, I think that New England, with a healthy Tom Brady as quarterback, will be too much for the Dolphins and win the American Football Conference East this year. In the AFC South, I see Indianapolis coming back and taking their division back after finishing second in it in 2008. In the AFC North, Baltimore will continue its improvement and win going away. The AFC West will see San Diego repeating as champions with little serious competition. As for the two wild card teams for the AFC, I'm hoping the Dolphins make it, but I'm predicting that they will be Pittsburgh and Tennessee instead.

In the National Football Conference East, Dallas will make an unexpected comeback and live up to their previously failed expectations by winning the division. The same goes for New Orleans, my pick for the NFC South. I want Tampa Bay to win it, and win it they may in this (to me) balanced division. But I think that this is the Saints' year, finally. Minnesota simply looks too strong in the NFC North, while Arizona, last year's NFC champion, still looks like the cream of the crop in the West. I see Atlanta and Philadelphia making it as the NFC's wild card entries for the post-season playoffs.

And what about the playoffs for 2009? I'll just say who I predict will make it to the Super Bowl: Baltimore and Minnesota, with Baltimore winning it all.

If you're a gambler, you would be well-advised to take my predictions with a grain of salt; I have been horrendously off with them for the last couple of years! But still, I get a get of kick out of throwing in my "two cents' worth".

Eleven Nine

Four days ago, I had the pleasure to write about my wedding anniversary. Now, though, we've returned in our calendar to an anniversary of tragedy, not necessarily as personal, but clearly on a greater historical scale. The 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center buildings, the Pentagon, and the hijacking and crashing of Flight 33 (not to mention the other three hijacked planes) have permanently stamped this date as one of sadness and anger. Although my wedding anniversary is uncomfortably close to 9/11, I am grateful that it doesn't fall on the same day.

But you know that many anniversaries and birthdays do fall on September 11. It must be difficult for people to feel comfortable going out and celebrating these important, legitimate milestones in their personal lives while the nation as a whole is in a much more somber state of reflection. This also applies to those whose special personal dates coincide with other infamous dates like December 7, November 22, or April 4. As for myself, a few years ago the young daughter of a couple we know died on my birthday in an ATV accident. So from then on, my birthday (at least to me) has always been (and will always be) a reminder of that tragedy and loss.

Speaking of the 9/11 attacks, they were so traumatic to our national consciousness that we don't need their anniversary to realize how much they affect our lives to this day. In particular, our current escalating war within Afghanistan stems directly from the fact that, in 2001, the terrorist Al-Qaeda organization, which planned and carried out the attacks, was operating freely there with the blessings of the Taliban-controlled government. So the U.S., with its NATO allies, justifiably set out in late 2001 to destroy Al-Qaeda, capture or kill its leaders, and punish the Taliban for giving them sanctuary.

But going so far as to overthrow the Taliban? I'm not sure that this goal was very well-thought out. At the time, the national political mood was so angry that some were even calling for nuclear attacks against Afghanistan. The thought of our national policy being to militarily punish the Taliban and then use leverage to separate them from Al-Qaeda would have been seen as too weak of a response to the attacks. But that was exactly how we got Sudan to expel Al-Qaeda out of its territory during the Clinton presidency. We didn't need to send US troops there to overthrow that Sudanese government, and no one is suggesting that we do so now (in spite of the ongoing Darfur tragedy in which that regime is complicit). But now, in Afghanistan, we've come around to where we were in Iraq. Our objectives have changed to "nation building".

We will not succeed in destroying the Taliban, which is an indigenous political/military movement popular among large sections of the population in certain regions, especially in the southern part of Afghanistan. The fact that their values offend many in the West (stoning for relatively minor crimes, persecution of minority religions, treatment of women as unequals, anti-education) may cloud the judgment of those who would like to improve life for Afghanis there. But we shouldn't digress from our original goals there, which were to eliminate Al-Qaeda as a security threat to us and to lay down the law that any regime harboring terrorists will be severely punished. For us to punish a governing regime somewhere is different than occupying their territory with our military while driving them out of power. All that accomplishes is to cast ourselves into the role of occupiers and to legitimize the overturned regime in the eyes of the people there. After all, the Taliban can now easily stigmatize whatever Afghan government is currently in power as "puppets" of the Americans as long as our military is there, very visible and in large numbers.

As for this article's title, I understand that dates are ordered differently in some countries, notably Great Britain. A few years ago, I had a little fun looking at a "Paul McCartney is dead" website that listed all of the reasons that the former Beatle supposedly died in 1966 from an automobile accident. Given as one of the clues was the date "9/11", reputedly appearing in some form on the Sgt. Pepper album cover. The website's author pointed out that this meant (to him) that the accident happened on November 9 [thanks for the correction, Barry], since in England the dates and months are switched in their conventional order of use. I don't know for sure whether or not that's true, but if it is it must be interesting for the British. After all, I'm sure that no one anywhere says "eleven nine" to refer to the 2001 terrorist attacks. Until now, that is.

Get With It, Virtual Reality!

I am not a gamer, neither in the gambling sense nor the video game application of the term. Aside from playing the state lottery (no more than $1 at a time) during the late eighties and early nineties, I have felt no desire to put my money on the line. Nor have I ever felt any kind of gambler's high as the result of a "win". I know the odds generally disfavor me, so why bother?

The same goes for video games. When my son was growing up in the nineties, he went through various stages of video games, starting with those slow ones on the desktop computer and then graduating into Sega Genesis, Nintendo, and beyond. I particularly remember enjoying watching him playing the Sonic the Hedgehog series. But me playing? It never captured my imagination (although I did for a time like to play a game called "Qix" on my brother-in-law's ancient Nintendo system). Even the games of today, with their superior, more realistic graphics, just don't duplicate reality enough for me. I need more. I need to be immersed within the game. I need virtual reality.

Tad Williams' grossly underrated four-volume science fiction Otherland series takes the development of virtual reality and gaming to its logical conclusion, a hundred years into the future. Gamers enter an extremely realistic alternate reality as the characters of their choice, instead of the current practice of watching a screen and manually manipulating controls. Like today's World of Warcraft game, participants meet up from all parts of the world, their true identities unknown to each other. This immersion in another "world" is what appeals to me.

But I see virtual reality technology not only for what it can bring to gaming. With the development of robotics and space propulsion technology, I see exploration of other worlds opening up for anyone to participate in as virtual "astronauts". And the locale for exploration need not be hospitable for human life. So one could fly through Jupiter's atmosphere or explore the extremely poisonous and hot surface of Venus this way.

I went to my county fair a few years ago. It had an exhibit promoting virtual reality that greatly disappointed me by its very primitive and unrealistic nature. Surely this must be something that computer software and hardware developers and gaming businesses can see as the future for their industries. Virtual reality is already being used to bring different parties together from distant points for conferences, with the participants assuming virtual identities for the meetings.

As a matter of fact, can I just go out on a limb and say that virtual reality will be the coming crucial element to the next great period of growth in our economy? It will make our current state of computer use look like the stone age and will cause those growing up within its culture to wander how people managed to survive in the early 21st century!

Pac-Ten Football Season Openers

This past weekend, my plan to earnestly "go west" and follow the Pacific-Ten NCAA football conference successfully kicked off, with me being able to watch four different games on my cable TV. But while watching the first game (and soon after its conclusion), I was wondering whether or not this league was really worth following.

When I got home from work last Thursday night, the Pac-10's Oregon Ducks were playing their season opener on the road against the Boise State Broncos (on their very weird dark-blue field). The fourth quarter was just beginning, and the Ducks, although behind, were still in the game, trailing 19-8 (which ended up as the final score). Oregon got the ball, the quarterback threw a long pass which was dropped, but wait... there was a penalty anyway against Oregon... then there was an interception...then Boise State fumbled away the ball and Oregon had it back...and then fumbled it back. In between these various screwups were assorted penalties. In other words, it was an extremely sloppy game, especially on the part of Oregon. But worst of all, after the game, one of their players, running back LeGarrette Blount, while walking off the field toward the locker rooms, responded to what was apparently a verbal taunt by one of the Boise State players by suddenly wheeling around and slugging him in the chin, sending him to the ground. The incident was aired repeatedly on television and was a news video highlight on the Net. Oregon responded to the incident by suspending the offender for the rest of the season from playing. But I was scratching my head, wondering to myself whether I had picked the wrong conference to follow!

That one player's unsportsmanlike conduct aside, Oregon did show some talent in spite of its sloppy play. And I'm sure that they will go into their future games with a mission to prove that they are really a better team. Despite this slow start of the Ducks, on Saturday I saw some other good Pacific-Ten teams in action. That gave me a needed sense of self-assurance.

USC drubbed San Jose State, California routed Maryland, and Washington played a close (but losing) game against LSU. Their quarterbacks (Matt Barkley, Kevin Riley, and Jake Locker respectively) gave impressive performances and should inspire confidence with their teams' fans in future games.

So, on two counts, I think I made the right decision to follow Pac-Ten football. One, many games are available on cable television for me to watch. And two, I can tell that (except for Oregon's sloppy play) their caliber of play matches up well with other major conferences.

I'm interested in seeing how UCLA does on the road next week against Tennessee, although I probably won't be able to see it on TV. And of course, there is that big matchup between USC and Ohio State. Right now, as things stand, my favorite Pacific-Ten team is California, particularly because of their impressive defensive performance against Maryland.

Four Movies on TV, Part 4

As the last of the four movies I saw on that lazy evening a few weeks ago, The Spy Who Loved Me ranks somewhere in the middle of all the James Bond flicks I've seen (which is all of them minus the latest one A Quantum of Solace). It is the third Bond film with Roger Moore in the star role as the suave, womanizing, and very violent British secret agent of Ian Fleming's literary series. Not that the movies have accurately reflected Fleming's vision of James Bond; the movies have to be appreciated (or despised) as entities distinct from the books.

The Spy Who Loved Me introduced Ringo Starr's later wife Barbara Bach as well as reacquainting the TV/movie audience with giant actor Richard Kiel (an actor who happens to be a giant). Kiel, you may recall, played the alien in the classic Twilight Zone episode To Serve Man. In The Spy Who Loved Me, Kiel plays Jaws, a free-lance hit man with metal for teeth and an incredible knack for survival. Jaws would return for the following Bond movie Moonraker and add a pretty cool twist to its ending.

The Spy Who Loved Me, like many James Bond movies before and after, pits the protagonist not against other nations but rather against an evil genius who wants to wreck the planet for the rest of us. As Bond, Moore teams up with Russian spy Bach to thwart the evildoer, with the usual impossible scenes involving chases, explosions, and fights (and some lovemaking thrown in on the side).

Of all the James Bond portrayers in the series, Roger Moore isn't one of my favorites. But he isn't one of the worst either. Here is my ranking of the actors playing Bond:

1 Sean Connery
2 Daniel Craig
3 Timothy Dalton
4 Roger Moore
5 Pierce Brosnan
6 George Lazenby

I am particularly grateful for George Lazenby's decision to only play Bond once, in the movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service. I never could accept him as Bond, although I understand that others have praised Lazenby's onetime portrayal.

If you're a fan of the James Bond movie series, you can't be like Star Wars or Star Trek fans and get hung up over the continuity of each movie with the next. Here are some examples:

--In the fourth Bond movie You Only Live Twice, Bond meets arch-nemesis Blofeld face-to-face and has a conversation with him. In the next of the series, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond once again encounters Blofeld while pretending to be an expert on heraldry. Blofeld doesn't recognize him as Bond.

--In Casino Royale, the 22nd (my count) Bond movie (introducing Daniel Craig), we go back in time to the beginning, when Bond gets his "007" designation and his very first assignment as the super spy. But his superior "M" is the same as the "M" in the previous four Bond movies starring Brosnan. And "Q" and Moneypenny, two longtime trademark characters of the Bond series, are nowhere to be seen.

--The 1983 unofficial Bond movie Never Say Never Again, starring Connery in his return to the star role, is really a poor rendition of the much better 1965 movie Thunderball.

--In the fifth movie You Only Live Twice, Bond reveals that his major at Cambridge was in oriental languages. But in the 19th movie Tomorrow Never Dies, he is completely stymied by Chinese writing.

Also, I found it hilarious how the villains would capture Bond and, instead of simply shooting him and being done with him, would try to make his death something creative and possible to escape from (which Bond always naturally did). So in Goldfinger, he is chained to an atomic bomb, in Diamonds Are Forever he is placed unconscious in pipes that are soon laid underground, in Live and Let Die he is tied up and gradually lowered into a pool of sharks, and so on. This ploy of the bad guy devising an elaborate scheme of getting rid of the hero has been copied and parodied in Get Smart, Batman, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and The Avengers, to name a few series.

I like the James Bond series as pure escapism and nothing more. There are definitely elements to Bond's personality that I find revolting, especially his cavalier attitude toward women. But, like the Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns, I find myself coming back and watching these movies over and over again.

A side-note: Beware of the USA Channel's presentation of the James Bond movies. They have edited too much out of them, apparently in order to be able to put on more commercials. I have noticed revised, butchered versions of the original Star Trek episodes and Andy Griffith on other cable channels as well. I find this practice to be deplorable.