tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23904285380792002792024-03-16T15:21:55.804-07:00What I Learned TodayI would love to blog everyday but it just doesn't happen these days. I do learn something new each day, but a lot of it just isn't worth blogging about.manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.comBlogger491125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-35908633378654432912024-03-16T15:21:00.000-07:002024-03-16T15:21:12.543-07:00Courier Journal - Winter 2023-24<p>My wife has a folder in her desk called "Why I Do What I Do." It is filled with remnants from her years as a teacher ... drawings from kids, nice notes from parents or students, pictures, etc. I used to joke with her that if I had such a folder for my job in IT, it would have only one thing in it, my pay check. This is mostly true. While I have made some good friends, had fine experiences and I enjoyed the actual job (detective work solving computer problems for hospitals), ultimately, the biggest thing I liked about the job was the pay. The stress of the job always got to me. The corporate environment in general, was just uncomfortable to me. I felt so out of place, like a fish out of water, imposter syndrome abounds. I could feel the tension in my body simply approaching the building, the muscles tightening in my neck and shoulder. Even when I telecommuted, stress was bad but I admit not as much. I don't feel that now, at all. The money sucks as a courier, but I really do enjoy it. I feel very little stress. I might start a folder of my own. </p><p>I have been delivering in the city of Burlington most of the winter so don't expect a lot of beautiful pictures of the VT landscape from me here. I have a few and the city is beautiful at times, but it is not like being out in the mountains for the day. I have delivered in Shelburne, Charlotte, Essex, New Haven, Johnson, Jeffersonville, Eden and Monkton this winter, but these are one-offs. I've spent most of my time in Burlington or South Burlington. South Burlington is technically its own city, but it is really just a big suburb of Burlington. I prefer the city or the countryside over the suburbs. Always have. </p><p>The winter has been a mild one. I've had a few unbearable days. Mostly it is my hands that get cold. I wear layers but I need my hands free to use my devices for the job. I also fell on the ice once at an insurance company in South Burlington. As I write this, I still feel a pain in my left arm. The warm days are a problem because things melt and when the evening comes, it goes below freezing again and everything becomes ice, like this picture in Shelburne on Lake Champlain. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQbGeKu5jBB22k66Yhk939xIxyPxro2mAJjg-rDsKfjoDX6SPpqOpuKSy07nXbwIUWdVjffZ2knLh_Mt5k68WwpFrfiFDHfAlwoHjySg2_gcfdlwncgvNN3lN-Vl11OkTjfwYjAjmz021-wiUOs18gWfQQEovJcJ-vVPBCL4dxLlJA7pIAsnrjeIDqFEE/s4032/lake%20champlain.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQbGeKu5jBB22k66Yhk939xIxyPxro2mAJjg-rDsKfjoDX6SPpqOpuKSy07nXbwIUWdVjffZ2knLh_Mt5k68WwpFrfiFDHfAlwoHjySg2_gcfdlwncgvNN3lN-Vl11OkTjfwYjAjmz021-wiUOs18gWfQQEovJcJ-vVPBCL4dxLlJA7pIAsnrjeIDqFEE/s320/lake%20champlain.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Lake Champlain (Shelburne)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjBHCyGOJ7wmMeKJ1HwqRl_TJld4JXR71jEvCsmu0Hj7XHnTGrxzU37f-5Uqyze1cwZXcf-Q3Nkk35N9siDosZYAeTOOhcN4f7qT-mmIScCsGfQtxZlMhhPuL0x0Z6169r4sUBfnLNoLgum-Fe6xIOvY2ZBoqWC7whyphenhyphennRlVO3yRte2CfZ7-k3dMQlyj-Q/s4032/IMG_0768.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjBHCyGOJ7wmMeKJ1HwqRl_TJld4JXR71jEvCsmu0Hj7XHnTGrxzU37f-5Uqyze1cwZXcf-Q3Nkk35N9siDosZYAeTOOhcN4f7qT-mmIScCsGfQtxZlMhhPuL0x0Z6169r4sUBfnLNoLgum-Fe6xIOvY2ZBoqWC7whyphenhyphennRlVO3yRte2CfZ7-k3dMQlyj-Q/s320/IMG_0768.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Camel's Hump (Waitsfield)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6_kOvwFw0xluqddUsZDhp8amPOKsMzogzhHRzaI8-mL4BT3br4NCD3dp_B1c_aY0GovmiOgzUzf8VoAE7yQEC7GstALGhrDX0l87x7_7kqR8CQfbbBn_Kc8nSMKi05rQ01k6Rp1692n3b_P4hwC_wt7UItMTOPerndYBeI1aZz0CNtl2qWbIUqwRdPno/s4032/IMG_0716.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6_kOvwFw0xluqddUsZDhp8amPOKsMzogzhHRzaI8-mL4BT3br4NCD3dp_B1c_aY0GovmiOgzUzf8VoAE7yQEC7GstALGhrDX0l87x7_7kqR8CQfbbBn_Kc8nSMKi05rQ01k6Rp1692n3b_P4hwC_wt7UItMTOPerndYBeI1aZz0CNtl2qWbIUqwRdPno/s320/IMG_0716.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">stream in North Ferrisburg</div><br /><p>The dirt roads get muddy during the day and then freeze at night causing ruts that are difficult to drive on. The muddy roads aren't easy either. I've gotten stuck twice in the snow this winter, but almost got stuck in the mud once. It happens. I wouldn't have been the first driver to do so. </p><p>Most of the driving I've done in my life has been in New England. So I don't know if this peculiar character of the roads are particular to New England or if it is like this everywhere. I am talking about how some roads change names for no apparent reason. I can understand a road changing name when it crosses a townline or perhaps when it crosses a major intersection, but here in New England road names, like the weather, change often. You could be driving on Greenbush Road in Charlotte Vermont, north for several miles, beautiful drive really. You go on for a few miles. All of sudden, the road name has changed and you are now on Bostwick Road. Why did it change? I don't know really. It might because the town changed. This is right about where Shelburne starts. You continue on Bostwick north, it turns east you can now see the Adirondack Mountains and Lake Champlain in your rear view mirror. You reach route 7 and guess what. Name change? You got it. It is now Marsett Road, but only for about 1000 feet. When you cross Mt. Philo Road, it changes again to Falls Road for another 1000 feet or so then it changes to Irish Hill Road. So in a matter of a mile, you haven't changed roads, but its name has changed four times.It stays Irish Hill Road for about a mile. When you cross Dorset Street it changes again to Pond Road. It travels by the beautiful Shelburne Pond, so lets rename the street, I guess. It stays Pond Road for a little over a mile and ends in St. George at route 116. I am grateful for my GPS. </p><p>Luckily, I drive in Burlington most days and no longer need to use a GPS because I've gotten to know the city so well. An order does exist. Remember, it is still a Northeastern city, so it is not a grid like Midwestern cities. But once you figure out the order of things, it is quite pleasant. </p>This is a city that is so messed up that it has both a North Avenue and a North Street. They are both major roads and they intersect. The planners were not thinking of visitors when they planned this city. <br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp2x0ug2eDX55V3FRbWd_dW0jDkFoIRM7MzRfdqqwtepj2P2UfxuGma640YcgXqr6UrnbIeVOTSS0uXu-cRJQfKUyhzeAQ1niMpqTdi33A_94kB8LShs5uXn2UCTSqeeP4zcUD08KyZp_y4kYL6RCiQlBlW27cLD0sINRGC9b-xtDcJMUj1Fy6UrqWF3A/s551/google%20Screenshot%202024-03-16%20171832.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="469" data-original-width="551" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp2x0ug2eDX55V3FRbWd_dW0jDkFoIRM7MzRfdqqwtepj2P2UfxuGma640YcgXqr6UrnbIeVOTSS0uXu-cRJQfKUyhzeAQ1niMpqTdi33A_94kB8LShs5uXn2UCTSqeeP4zcUD08KyZp_y4kYL6RCiQlBlW27cLD0sINRGC9b-xtDcJMUj1Fy6UrqWF3A/s320/google%20Screenshot%202024-03-16%20171832.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: left;">Burlington pivots around Pearl Street. You think it would have been arranged around Main Street, which is one street away, but I am grateful it has some order so I won't complain too much. Streets that cross Pearl, have the North or South designation. On the North side is North Winooski, North Union, North Willard, North Williams and North Prospect. South of Pearl, you have the same streets but the South versions. Champlain Street doesn't ever reach Pearl, it must have at some point. Now there is a huge complex that includes the Marriot and the Hilton are where Champlain would connect, but there are still a North and South Champlain. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: left;">The main West/East streets downtown are (going South to North) Maple, Main, College, Bank, Cherry, Pearl and North Street. I remember MMCBCPN. I haven't made a nifty mnemonic for it yet. The North/South Streets are (going East to West) Prospect, Willard, Union, Winooski, Church, St. Paul, Pine, Champlain and Battery or PWUWCSPCB. It doesn't exactly roll off your tongue but I remember it. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: left;">Getting oriented in Burlington isn't very difficult because you have a big lake. If you can see Lake Champlain, you know what direction you are facing. If you are driving towards the lake, you are facing West. You can see the Adirondacks, that's New York State. All else falls into place after you know that. If it is in your rearview mirror and you are facing the Green Mountains, you are driving East. If it on your left and you are going towards Colchester, North. On your right and headed toward South Burlington, South. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: left;">I spend good part of my day driving up and down Pearl Street. If I get a package to deliver on ### North Willard, I simply drive down Pearl and turn onto North Willard and look for the number. if I took any of the other East/West streets, I would be taking the risk that I am going to turn the wrong way once I got to Willard. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: left;">I time my day to be near Church Street around noon because I have a choice of about twenty (no exaggeration) amazing coffee shops where some of them even know my name now. Some of them even give me free coffee. So far, life is good being a courier. </span></div><p></p><br /><p><br /></p>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-60082970049262674892023-12-10T09:42:00.000-08:002023-12-10T09:42:04.363-08:00Courier Journal - Fall 2023<p>I know three people who died of heart attacks in my time as a software analyst/engineer. Some of them younger and in better health than me. So when I had a <a href="https://manofwow.blogspot.com/2023/02/my-by-pass.html" target="_blank">heart attack </a>this past January, still unemployed from my IT career, I decided to find something that I enjoy to do that ... well ... won't kill me. One of the joys of my life is driving around Vermont. So I became a courier and now I drive all over VT and get paid for it. I don't get paid a lot, less than half my old salary. You could say I am working for benefits and winding down to my retirement. I am enjoying it.</p><p>After a regiment of training and tests, I started off delivering, solo, in the towns of Charlotte, Vergennes, North Ferrisburg and Shelburne, and occasionally in Panton and New Haven. These are all beautiful towns that hug Lake Champlain south of Burlington along routes 7 and 23. These are truly stunning places. </p><p>Here is an example of a driveway I had back down in my truck. It is not the most difficult one I've had to do either. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieihnXytdx8E723QlOKId3kug3pl9Vhj8F9oKEjgfL3cZZDrgebzC66Hb0OIgU2C7RozHVs2wGA4iR3y5i-E5JVR5-sxh17Gq-wn4KTWciL22q-hdXC6UuobTBlkCWrN16wEHPX7oEr0osv-ekQi_Mepg1_O_sYUf5UPQWQBsuCfVJmsLvzmoXK8iVdAum/s4032/driveway.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieihnXytdx8E723QlOKId3kug3pl9Vhj8F9oKEjgfL3cZZDrgebzC66Hb0OIgU2C7RozHVs2wGA4iR3y5i-E5JVR5-sxh17Gq-wn4KTWciL22q-hdXC6UuobTBlkCWrN16wEHPX7oEr0osv-ekQi_Mepg1_O_sYUf5UPQWQBsuCfVJmsLvzmoXK8iVdAum/s320/driveway.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p>I believe I was at the foot of Mount Philo in North Ferrisburg when I took this. That is Mt. Mansfield, VT's largest mountain, in the distance. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1q2E3EjuJ4sKYN_4LyO4tOcx5qwdhZ9NR3FOt3jk5MyjgGcZaSdaxlwNQg2U7F-7XGeEm7LBHyx48eUp10u0QHB2bENwLeTNuvwO2ZfhOsrm6-RpJQIjguoVvQbpSPSmwK0skEkFTnKjhIy91jqvNWyYz91mYdN-ROcrmT2-RUXBfRVezrjL1ZwZO9Utx/s4032/Shelburne.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1q2E3EjuJ4sKYN_4LyO4tOcx5qwdhZ9NR3FOt3jk5MyjgGcZaSdaxlwNQg2U7F-7XGeEm7LBHyx48eUp10u0QHB2bENwLeTNuvwO2ZfhOsrm6-RpJQIjguoVvQbpSPSmwK0skEkFTnKjhIy91jqvNWyYz91mYdN-ROcrmT2-RUXBfRVezrjL1ZwZO9Utx/s320/Shelburne.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>This is the Otter Creek taken from MacDonough Park in Vergennes (the smallest city in the US).<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgiVb2QQTEbSIlVeX8F861sxRjfDpZZBn13Svuz2w_jGlQ0UCbtJHUAhoRhC62tIOkSyFFiVtrD3h5Bdp6dlQ0kiXQT-CseWegG4tolIn8kgKxENhYtNjlPAZDqyr8_Z_3lFtYsTSnQa6kUahmhgZ3G-l7rw5Dme1jkEMROtmfu1CiIGakfUDm0TKldbWd/s4032/Vergennes.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgiVb2QQTEbSIlVeX8F861sxRjfDpZZBn13Svuz2w_jGlQ0UCbtJHUAhoRhC62tIOkSyFFiVtrD3h5Bdp6dlQ0kiXQT-CseWegG4tolIn8kgKxENhYtNjlPAZDqyr8_Z_3lFtYsTSnQa6kUahmhgZ3G-l7rw5Dme1jkEMROtmfu1CiIGakfUDm0TKldbWd/s320/Vergennes.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Taken from a covered bridge in Charlotte, VT (I believe):<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYNMjw5VZrozA181aiXxsBtjxkEOtNgGGp3lVMZqqRpcKHHeIz_qAgdrNXtMBeBpqUThzjM0zQp3QtnR3RGkqbKSe_-lEnpuITE8_qXJBXkNwE-Gn2ENpKCW6W8vQZY2M90rV5Dv1A60Hhqg6CXehwuzjtI4Vyibbn_Ke4O4eP6LWMsi9i8HhLfsp1bELm/s4032/snowing%20in%20charlotte.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYNMjw5VZrozA181aiXxsBtjxkEOtNgGGp3lVMZqqRpcKHHeIz_qAgdrNXtMBeBpqUThzjM0zQp3QtnR3RGkqbKSe_-lEnpuITE8_qXJBXkNwE-Gn2ENpKCW6W8vQZY2M90rV5Dv1A60Hhqg6CXehwuzjtI4Vyibbn_Ke4O4eP6LWMsi9i8HhLfsp1bELm/s320/snowing%20in%20charlotte.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">This horse farm is in Shelburne. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_9gIFrXfxsWV_dcZwGUohqqwlvnmdqDtlpQxM9KyRJXTIOEPAR9-EH2iGKEmGa7IuBADCQ2QeWFdWZYV0gLWixdHXQTAFHZulBaRIR3pcSFVWcsMDHX9fYzaMF19R4kw7iaYxRYuQK5UOmUzqzDphsVVTLF7PCjWnohL7fdFJVSXP_0TEgmFPEh062bAq/s4032/horse%20farm.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_9gIFrXfxsWV_dcZwGUohqqwlvnmdqDtlpQxM9KyRJXTIOEPAR9-EH2iGKEmGa7IuBADCQ2QeWFdWZYV0gLWixdHXQTAFHZulBaRIR3pcSFVWcsMDHX9fYzaMF19R4kw7iaYxRYuQK5UOmUzqzDphsVVTLF7PCjWnohL7fdFJVSXP_0TEgmFPEh062bAq/s320/horse%20farm.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>I believe this is West Charlotte.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjynFU8SJymjyB27kigQzgYiDeW3FuGFlL84vaJrMy__w6MvajVvr8ETX1FkSPjwRBKCk90jzNXaVNkET4vF_RyuktFLaKiJRmWHxBY6uKKVqiBicrEs_R_fCe_3vrSIlpFl0xl-zrqMBle6H-dORGpIdodtIDXnLzWEyq6tQqEqMZD1Hz45dLi5aUx3MS7/s4032/west%20charlotte.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjynFU8SJymjyB27kigQzgYiDeW3FuGFlL84vaJrMy__w6MvajVvr8ETX1FkSPjwRBKCk90jzNXaVNkET4vF_RyuktFLaKiJRmWHxBY6uKKVqiBicrEs_R_fCe_3vrSIlpFl0xl-zrqMBle6H-dORGpIdodtIDXnLzWEyq6tQqEqMZD1Hz45dLi5aUx3MS7/s320/west%20charlotte.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>I don't take pictures while I am driving. I have to pull over or sometimes, I am delivering something and I see something picturesque while I am at a stop ... I pull out my phone and snap it. I was planning on taking a picture of something beautiful everyday, but that is difficult when weather is bad. Also, something else happened.<div><br /></div><div>This is a long route which means a very long day. On some days, I was in at 6:30am and out at 7:30pm, not getting home until after 8pm while my son was going to bed. I was exhausted and made mistakes because of it. I told my boss that I thought this route was a young man's route and I didn't think I could take it. He understood and we worked it out that I am a part timer now. This is actually great for me, because I get home in the afternoon now and can usually catch my son's bus. I keep my full benefits as well.<br /><p>Now I am driving the Burlington priority route. I still really enjoy this, although it is less pretty, this is a really great city. I deliver priority packages all morning to the College, Church Cherry and Main Street area. I get a few non-priority packages in the afternoon and then I head home. I deliver blood to the Red Cross, drug and vaccines to pharmacies etc. It is a good living. </p><p>I try to time it so that I am around Church Street for my break. So I can go to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/muddywatersvt/" target="_blank">Muddy Waters</a> for some chili and coffee or one of the other funky cafes. I am getting to know the business people on my route, some of whom I see everyday. While some of the drivers who deliver to Burlington seem to be burnt out on my place, I seem to love it more everyday, warts and all. Hopefully that doesn't change. </p><p>I do have a suggestion for you if you want to make things easier for your delivery person. Make sure the number of your house is visible. If you are rural, try to put your number on the road somewhere. I waste a lot of time trying to find the correct house. It is not always obvious. On the days I do work late, finding a house in the dark is very challenging ... especially if the number on a brown house are also brown or just not posted. Make it obvious and easy to find and read. Safety is something to which we all contribute.</p></div>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-43493844801058034252023-10-09T12:20:00.003-07:002023-10-09T12:20:44.402-07:00A Widow for One Year<p>When I pick up a John Irving novel, I expect a certain level of wittiness, maybe a small dose of silliness, some odd characters and maybe a dancing bear or two. I get none of that in <u>A Widow for One Year</u>, his ninth novel. My expectations aside, I should be able to enjoy one of his books that doesn't rely on these hooks. I understand a writer wanting to something new. If I had to characterize this book in his canon of work, I'd put in the category of experiment that failed, like his <u>A Son of the Circus</u>, which was published a novel before this one. </p><p>One of the themes of the book is grief and how different people deal with it. Two of the main characters, Ted and Marion are the parents of two teenage boys whom they see die in a brutal car accident. Ted reacts to the grief by womanizing. Marion does so by bottling it up and eventually running away. She also seduces Ted's teenage writing assistant, Eddie. Ted and Marion also have another child Ruth who is four when Marion leaves the family in 1958. The rest of the book, takes place in the 1990's with middle-aged Ruth and Eddie still dealing with how Ted and Marion's destructive behavior affected their life. Ted and Marion's grief had infected another generation. Marion explains that "grief is contagious." </p><p>Another theme of the book is whether a writer needs to experience what they write about or is their imagination all they need to rely upon. Every major character in this book is a writer (Ted, Marion, Eddie and Ruth) which gets tiresome. In one of Ruth's books she refers to one of her characters as "a widow for one year" and an angry reader complains that one is a widow for the rest of your life implying that Ruth is an imposter and doesn't know what she is writing about. </p><p>I find this part of the book interesting because there is always a lot of Irving's life in his books. He wrestled at Phillips-Exeter as a kid and this appears in his novels a lot. They often are based in New England (he was born in New Hampshire and is now a Vermonter) or in Canada, partially, in which he also lives. The only Irving book I can recall that did not have a lot of his life in it, was <u>A Son of the Circus</u>, which was a crime novel set in Dubai and it was a disaster of a book. Perhaps <u>A Widow for One Year</u> was written in response to the criticism of that book. </p><p>My attraction to Irving novels is usually the characters. I love Garp, Owen Meaney, Homer Wells and the kids growing up at <u>The Hotel New Hampshire</u>. This is a 500+ page book that mostly documents the sex life of a small group of self-obsessed individuals. When you have the ability to create a character like Garp and his mom, why create these tiresome people? Two thirds of the way into the book, the character Ruth takes a trip to Europe. I don't know why these 100 pages are even in this book. The end could have been rewritten without these pages entirely. When I got to this point, I wanted the book to end. If I didn't have a commitment to finish a book after I started one, I wouldn't have gotten through this one. </p><p><br /></p>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-59232595846901874092023-10-06T14:39:00.002-07:002023-10-08T08:12:42.506-07:00Jon Lester's Eulogy (the cat, not the ball player)<p>In my house, when a baseball player wins the World Series for both the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs, you get a pet named after you. I am talking about Jon Lester, the pitcher who won the Series with the 2007 and 2013 Red Sox and the 2016 Cubs. Our cat Jon Lester was named after him. This is the cat's eulogy not the pitcher. I understand that the pitcher is doing fine and living out his retirement in the state of Georgia hunting, drinking a lot of wine and writing, last I heard.</p><p>When you live in a rural setting, you really need a cat. Mice do find a way into your home. Our cat Mavis kept them away. She wasn't a very good cat. She is probably the only pet I've ever had that I did not bond with. She wasn't friendly, she seemed to hate humans but loved our dogs. She would duck when we went to pet her but she would run up to our dogs and rub them. She would disappear for days, even weeks. We only deduced that she was dead when she failed to return, when mice started showing up and she wasn't eating her food. I didn't write her a eulogy. </p><p>We replaced her with Jasper who was a truly awesome cat but we only had him for a couple of months. He was hit by a car in front of our house. I had to pick up his near dead body off the road with blood shooting out of him. It was one of the worse things I ever had to do. </p><p>We had Wrigley for only a couple of months as well. We didn't let her outside because I didn't want to go through that again. She was a timid sweet animal. She got outside once and while my dog Hazel was home alone. When I got home with my other dog Woodrow. I let him outside to be with Hazel. A few minutes later, I looked out the back window and I saw them playing tug of war with something. This is one of my more awful images I have in my brain. </p><p>2016 was very bad year for us. Our dog <a href="https://manofwow.blogspot.com/2014/04/maxs-eulogy.html" target="_blank">Max</a> died, we had a drought here causing us to go without water for a few weeks and Trump got elected. If it wasn't for the Cubs winning the World Series, it would have been our worst year together as a couple. The other great thing that happened that year we adopted (Jon) Lester from the Addison County animal shelter.</p><p>We needed a tough cat that would stand his ground against Hazel who was kinda a bitch. He was a barn cat. The people who brought him into the shelter had too many cats in their barn. He ended up being the perfect cat. Gorgeous as well! </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj712PxQm5Iexjqbk5LA3OTN-YI9AdPbvLPJSFK18D-BEO9vose13FofxpnjsL1czfdWakSq5xx6nLp0xpXuJQXrUrXfTrxm9QXASYWM0wn6jx0Ma6n0WBhFRb7ES9tD0TZZ_5x-xFCvb5KrFIUqWCsFpnxl_TBc8ft2J1kOqxfDG34ZBJgVdari_X1p1c/s1902/lester.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1902" data-original-width="1902" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj712PxQm5Iexjqbk5LA3OTN-YI9AdPbvLPJSFK18D-BEO9vose13FofxpnjsL1czfdWakSq5xx6nLp0xpXuJQXrUrXfTrxm9QXASYWM0wn6jx0Ma6n0WBhFRb7ES9tD0TZZ_5x-xFCvb5KrFIUqWCsFpnxl_TBc8ft2J1kOqxfDG34ZBJgVdari_X1p1c/s320/lester.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>Hazel was afraid of him. He swiped at her whenever she walked by which was perfect. He was a great mouser. He cuddled with me almost every night, sometimes on my shoulder, my chest, sometimes at my feet. He even played fetch. If you crinkled a ball of paper and threw it, he'd run and catch it then put it back in your hand. I still haven't had a dog that would play fetch but I've had two cats that have. Go figure! I was convince he was smarter than my dogs. If his water bowl was empty, he'd stand on the side of it and meow. My dogs, and even some humans I know, don't communicate that well.</p><p>It was early in the summer this year that he got out. He occasionally did this, but always came back right away. This time he did not. I put his food out for him. Something was eating it, but I had no proof it was him. So I set my wilderness camera up to verify it was him. I moved it closer and closer to the house until it was on the front porch. This is a video of him on June 4th. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyA5JzqS0pp_mketgk9dbdl0k2jZD9KsVPdbJ-yT7TOch2Y7FN8GdVesBaHhY-lgJHEx_V-oDDo3AEAzWJ_6A' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><p>I borrowed a trap from one of my neighbors and the first night I had it out there, I caught him but because I didn't set the trap correctly, he backed his way out. Here is the video of that feat:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dw_5o0PjPQplZKHET4Pk_FyRBJ2wvTiA77EI6yWMaLFfnl58VyvNYdF7zxSZsr3fZ5mxWHFoIKA46rIGX-Ciw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><p>The panel behind him wasn't set properly so I am guess that he just continued to backed out of the trap. He was too smart for his own good. He appeared on my video for about month after that. He never got caught again. Then he stopped showing up around mid-July.</p><p>We assume he passed away somehow. Either a car, a fisher or a coyote got him. Maybe someone took him in. I only hope. I still look for him when I go out in the yard. I miss him very much. </p>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-33494319279451620512023-08-23T14:22:00.000-07:002023-08-23T14:22:10.837-07:00My Fragile Faith in Humanity / The Plague<p>I live with a fragile faith in humanity. I waiver, sometimes within moments, between being an all out humanist believing in humanity's unadulterated ability to overcome all to an occasional belief that humanity is a virus upon this planet. It is not an easy way to live, but I have growth to be accustomed to this dichotomy. I have adapted and it has become the norm for me. </p><p>I go about my life like anyone else. I drive along picturesque, pastoral rural Vermont. I look upon the windmills on Georgia mountain and their awesome turning. I think of progress. I think to myself, "How wonderful we are leaning to live in harmony with our environment!" and then drive on and come across someone with a chorus of plastic blowup Walmart crap cluttering their lawn. It could be Christmas, there could be blinking lights with Santa, elves and reindeers. It is at this point when I change over to my other self. We are fucking doomed. I am in constant battle with myself. </p><p>I just finished rereading Albert Camus' <u>The Plague</u>. It is a perfect book to read coming out of the pandemic. It is bubonic plague in the book but symbolically it is a different plague he is writing about. It is a plague of bad ideas. It is written shortly after World War II and it take place in his native Algiers in a small city called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oran" target="_blank">Oran </a>in 1947. The world was fighting a plague of isms in mid-20th century: communism, socialism, capitalism and fascism. </p><p>This is a philosophical novel so the journey is a personal one, one of thought and self reflection. Like most books of this nature it's soul, it's place where it sets the reader straight, it's denouement, if you will occurs towards the end of the book when the character Tarrou finally tells the main character Dr. Rieux what is on his mind. </p><p></p><blockquote><span>"...</span> this epidemic has taught me nothing new, except that I must fight it at your side. I know positively ---- yes, Rieux, I can say I know the world inside out, as you may see --- that each of us has the plague within him; no one , no one on earth is free from it."</blockquote>Life is a battle of internal dialogue in a search what is right and what is wrong. For me, the wind mills are right and a sign of progress, but the plastic blinking Santa on some idiot's lawn ... that is clearly wrong. All I can think is "What the fuck?!" Plastic comes from oil. Roughly13.9 million acres, globally, are being used for oil production on this planet. All that habitat being destroyed so that blinking Santa can exist. Why is anyone buying this shit? If you bought it used or a long time ago, you don't have to use. You don't have to waste the electricity using it! I have to control myself not to pull the car over, in the dark, sneak their lawn and destroy this shit. I think of this each time I see one of these. My faith is fragile, but calmer minds <i>do </i>prevail in the end. <p></p><div>The character Tarrou smiles a lot. He doesn't show his internal struggles. This is not true for me. My internal struggles are obvious. I bitch a lot, sometimes loudly. Here I go again, our plagues here in the early 21st century are different. We have global warming and the destruction of bio-diversity and it is capitalism that is bringing it on. The other isms are mostly gone but capitalism is alive and well and eating our planet, much like Galactus in Marvel Comics. Each time you buy some plastic crap, something you really don't need, you taking a bite, your bite, out of her. Capitalism is our plague. </div><div><br /></div><div>Camus' narrator says this early in the novel:</div><blockquote><div>"In this respect our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves, in other words they were humanists; they disbelieved in pestilences. A pestilence isn't a thing made to man's measure, therefore we tell ourselves that pestilence is a mere bogy of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away. But it doesn't always pass away and, from one bad dream to another, it is men who pass away, and the humanist first of all, because they haven't taken their precautions. Our townsfolk were not more to blame than others; they forgot to be modest, that was all, and through that everything still was possible for them which presupposed that pestilences were impossible. They went on doing business, arranged for journeys, and formed views. How should they have given a thought to anything like plague, which rules out any future, cancels journeys, silences the exchange of views. They fancied themselves free, and no one will ever be free so long as there are pestilences.</div></blockquote><p>Camus is considered an existentialist, which is perfect for humanity's current predicament. We fight for our literal existence. But he didn't care for this term. He considered himself an absurdist, our search for meaning leads us into conflict with the world. This is me. Recently, I was having breakfast with some acquaintances and a young mother mentioned that she wanted to have five more children. I was screaming inside. I don't know why, but the pestilence of the plague is not obvious to everyone, even smart people. Denial is a lot easier than confronting reality. </p><p>Let us not forget to be modest. </p><blockquote><div> </div></blockquote>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-56447884239200403882023-07-30T09:28:00.004-07:002023-07-30T09:38:47.844-07:00Try That in a Small Town<p>I have started going to a commercial gym lately. My time at the Cardiac Rehab gym, where they connected electrodes to my chest as I exercised, has expired. I will miss the crowd there. I signed up for Planet Fitness which is incredibly inexpensive and has all the machine I need to continue my progress. The contrast between the two places is striking. I was one of the youngest people at the Rehab gym, the employees were all healthcare professionals and the exercise equipment looked out onto the Adirondack Mountains. I could let my mind wander pondering the natural beauty. It was nice. Planet Fitness seems to be run by teenagers, I am the one of the oldest members, it seems, and the workout machines all faces televisions, not mountains. All the ellipticals, treadmills and stationary bikes face a line of sixteen televisions. All tuned to either ESPN, CNN, CBS, Discovery or Fox News among others. You can't get away from it. Closing your eyes is the only way to get away from the tyranny of the television.</p><p>This change is both good and bad. It is bad because I miss my lovely workout view of the Adirondacks. It is good because now I can see all the awful things that Fox News is saying about me. As a liberal I have always found Fox News entertaining because it always implies that liberals walk lock step together on everything. It is my experience that if I get ten liberals together, I am going to have ten different opposing opinions with lots of nuance. Arguments will ensue about the silliest minutiae. The only thing those ten people would agree about Jason Aldean's song "Try That in a Small Town," is that it is really awful song. It being a racist song, that would be debatable. If "libs" are saying this, like Fox is saying, I can guarantee it is not all of them. Most of them have better things to ponder. </p><p>Last Friday, I saw this on the Fox News banner: "Libs are saying that Aldean song is racist." Something close to that. I was on the treadmill for a half hour and they talked about it the entire time. I did another 15 minutes on the stationary bike and they were still on this. I didn't realize that I was suppose dislike this song, until Fox brought it up. I never even heard of the song or the musician until I saw this. I went back to the gym again after the weekend and they were still talking about it. The volume was muted so I don't know what they were saying but the banner was more of the same. You think they would have something more important to talk about ... like, say, a war in Europe etc. After all, they still claim to be a news network, even though most of us know that they aren't. </p><p>Most of the people I know that I would consider liberal don't listen to country music, particularly those that live in the city. Who can blame them with country music bashing the city like it does? That is all this song by Aldean is. "Try That in a Small Town" is a just latest in country music attack on city folks. Country life = good, city life =bad is a country music trope that goes way back as far back as Hank Williams, probably even further. If country musicians want city folks to stop being so negative about country music, they might want to start by not being such dicks about the city. </p><p>Here are the lyrics of the song if you haven't heard it yet:</p><h3><div class="ujudUb" jsname="U8S5sf" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 12px;"><span jsname="YS01Ge"></span></div><blockquote><div class="ujudUb" jsname="U8S5sf" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 12px;"><span jsname="YS01Ge">Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Carjack an old lady at a red light</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Ya think it's cool, well, act a fool if ya like</span></div><div class="ujudUb" jsname="U8S5sf" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 12px;"><span jsname="YS01Ge">Cuss out a cop, spit in his face</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Stomp on the flag and light it up</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Yeah, ya think you're tough</span></div><div class="ujudUb" jsname="U8S5sf" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 12px;"><span jsname="YS01Ge">Well, try that in a small town</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">See how far ya make it down the road</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Around here, we take care of our own</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">You cross that line, it won't take long</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">For you to find out, I recommend you don't</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Try that in a small town</span></div><div class="ujudUb" jsname="U8S5sf" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 12px;"><span jsname="YS01Ge">Got a gun that my granddad gave me</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">They say one day they're gonna round up</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Well, that shit might fly in the city, good luck</span></div><div class="ujudUb" jsname="U8S5sf" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 12px;"><span jsname="YS01Ge">Try that in a small town</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">See how far ya make it down the road</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Around here, we take care of our own</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">You cross that line, it won't take long</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">For you to find out, I recommend you don't</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Try that in a small town</span></div><div class="ujudUb" jsname="U8S5sf" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 12px;"><span jsname="YS01Ge">Full of good ol' boys, raised up right</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">If you're looking for a fight</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Try that in a small town</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Try that in a small town</span></div><div class="ujudUb" jsname="U8S5sf" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 12px;"><span jsname="YS01Ge">Try that in a small town</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">See how far ya make it down the road</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Around here, we take care of our own</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">You cross that line, it won't take long</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">For you to find out, I recommend you don't</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Try that in a small town</span></div><div class="ujudUb WRZytc" jsname="U8S5sf" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span jsname="YS01Ge">Try that in a small town</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Ooh-ooh</span><br aria-hidden="true" /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Try that in a small town</span></div></blockquote></h3><p>Like most bad writing, it over-simplifies. Hate is like that. Emotional in content, self-righteous in nature. I've lived in the big city (Boston) and I've lived in small towns. The town I live in now has roughly 2,000 residence, which is, by the way, much smaller than Aldean's home town of Macon, Georgia. I don't find people that different as individuals here than in Boston. The big difference is the number of people. Here in rural Vermont, we have a lot of room, fresh air and privacy. When you have the density of humans that a lot of our cities have, all of that is difficult to find. That affects a person. But I've had great neighbors in Boston just like I have them here. I know I am a better neighbor here than I used to be when I lived in Boston. This is mostly because the quality of life is higher and this has allowed me to be a better person in general. Traffic in Boston, alone, is a bad enough experience to change a person's outlook. Vermont, indeed, has made me a better person, but no traffic, more quiet alone time and cheap/free parking, had a lot to do with it. </p><p>Unless you think that being anti-urban, by caveat, also means it is racist, then this song is not racist. It is simplistic, kinda idiotic and mostly just shit ... but racist, I don't think so. I've grown to like country music, some country music. This wasn't always the case. I grow tired of rock n' roll lyric being opaque and not very well written. The straight forwardness of a good country song is appealing and refreshing. Like rock, rap and jazz, most of country music is bad. But country also has its geniuses. Emmylou Harris' "Red Dirt Girl" is a masterpiece and Towne Van Zandt and Steve Earl are better song writers than most rock musicians which now leans towards tight assed and self-righteous. You don't have to find subtext to find racism in a country song because they are so direct, there is usually no subtext. But isn't being anti-urban enough to alarm you? Aldean's song is saying that if you live in the city, you suck or at least you are complicit. Also, you try that here, we'll kill you. This song praises vigilantism. That is alarming enough for me. You don't have add racism to make me concerned. </p><p>I wrote most of this before I ever watched the video.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/b1_RKu-ESCY" width="320" youtube-src-id="b1_RKu-ESCY"></iframe></div>I admit the lyrics coupled with the imagery makes the song a lot more disturbing. It is clearly a right wing call for arms. Yes, disturbing. Racist, I still don't see it. I see a lot of referencing to racist "dog whistles" in internet chatter but I don't see it. I could be wrong. <p></p>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-64108494168733095042023-06-21T14:44:00.001-07:002023-06-21T14:44:26.858-07:00How To Defeat Trite Man<p>Nothing is so inane as small talk. On some level small talk is necessary. When I meet a co-worker, in the elevator perhaps, that I know nothing about and I don't feel like learning anymore, a nice quick conversation about the weather can come in handy. Sometimes I am just not in the mood, whether it is a lack of coffee on that particular morning or as a result of my anti-social tendencies. Weather, sports, keep it light, keep it quick, move on.</p><p>Trite Man over does it. Trite Man lives in a perpetual state of small talk. He lives and breathes it. Don't let him pull you in. I have been attending a rehab gym for my post-heart attack recovery and Trite Man has been attending the gym on the same days as me. It is unbearable to hear. I have been blowing out my ear drum via earbuds just to drown him out. I took a short movie of his "performance" so that I could post it here but I decided not to post it. That was probably a good idea, so this clip from <i>Star Trek: The Next Generation</i> will suffice. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kntMdtzG5a8" width="320" youtube-src-id="kntMdtzG5a8"></iframe></div><br /><p>Data is an android testing a new small talk sub-routine, so he has an excuse, but the other character is a perfect portrayal of Trite Man. He is terrifying. If Trite Man pulls you in, it can be very hard to escape. If you get stuck in a room with two of these fuckers, they can truly drive you to insanity. No shit, complete insanity. </p><p>Think of Trite Man as a super villain, everyone of them has their weakness. The only way to defeat Trite Man is by ignoring him. He feeds on inane content and empty gestures. Answer him with one word answers or simply pretend you don't hear him. Put your headphones in your ears regardless if there is music playing. Starve the beast. It doesn't matter if he is dispensing folk wisdom or repeating something "witty" his aunt Tilly always says. Just say "Nope" no matter what he says, no explanation, this will diminish his power greatly. </p><p>This can get difficult if he says something that you disagree with greatly. This almost happened to me the other day. I went to the urinal in the locker room and I had left my phone and headphones on the bench. Trite Man entered and said aloud, "oh no, someone forgot their stuff." I yelled back from the other room, "no, those are mine" Oh no, I had engaged him, how do I get out of this? "Oh good," he said, "you can't be too safe these days." The giant sucking sound was pulling me in. I so wanted to tell him, "No, the world is a much safer place these days." This trite nonsense about the past being idyllic and safer than now is everywhere. Trite Man loves misinformation. I had data and historical analysis in my corner but he had fear and a popular saying in his. Surely I could convince him that he is wrong. But I did the right thing, I didn't engage. I walked away. </p><p>Please help me in defeating Trite Man. Ignore him. It is the only way he'll stop. </p><p><br /></p>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-54447296885684573822023-05-04T09:00:00.002-07:002023-05-04T09:00:10.307-07:00I Speak for the Trees<p>I've had this discussion many time:</p><p><b>Friend: </b>"You're an Atheist, you don't understand what 'sacred' means."</p><p><b>Me: </b>"But I do, every tree I see is sacred."</p><p>Like the Lorax, I speak for the trees. Sacredness is readily available, not in an old and tired symbol from the Bronze Age, but right here in front of us. Life giving, carbon sucking trees. I don't hug trees, not at least until I get to know them. Even then, only after I have their permission.</p><p>But seriously, I am not the only person of this ilk. The idea of trees being sacred goes way back to Egyptian, Asyrian and Norse Mythology as well as Celtic, Germanic and Hungarian folklore predating many of our major religions. But I don't get my inspiration from these sources. Mine comes from personal experience. I grew up in a miserable town where they hated trees. Trees were hard to find and were talked about as if they were a nuisance. </p><p>Dramatization from my youth:</p><p><b>Neighbor 1: </b>Whatcha doing his weekend?</p><p><b>Neighbor 2: </b>Removing that darn tree in my yard. I'm sick of it cracking the pavement and having to pick up those damn leaves?</p><p><b>Neighbor 1: </b>You smell that? The stink in this city is getting worse all the time </p><p><b>Neighbor 2: </b>And hot as hell as well.</p><p>It didn't occurs to them that their hatred of trees, the stink and outrageous heat in the city were related. Luckily, I spent most of my summers of my youth in southern Rhode Island on the bank of a river not too far from the Atlantic. I got to know plenty of trees. I climbed a tiny oak to get away onto the roof of our family cabin to be alone, another two older oaks held my hammock where I escaped into books or several moored my boat as I adventured onto land. Trees were great hiding places, behind or among the branches. I can't imagine a childhood without them. If I believed in magic, it manifest itself as a tree. </p><p>I look to literature for the spiritual. For the scientific minded, spiritual is just a word we use to describe the flush of emotions (aka chemicals reacting) that happen when something spectacular happens, when a connection is made. In this particular case, in a book. Trees as a symbol are all over literature. You can start with the Old Testament, Adam and Eve chomping at the Tree of Knowledge. I think more of contemporary references like Shel Silverstein's <u>The Giving Tree</u>, Herman Hesse's <u><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/27688-for-me-trees-have-always-been-the-most-penetrating-preachers" target="_blank">Trees</a></u> and <u>Siddhartha,</u> <a href="http://lonebearimagesprose.blogspot.com/2010/09/poem-for-day-two-trees-by-william.html" target="_blank">W.B. Yeats</a> or the marvelous ents in Tolkien' trilogy <u>The Lord of the Rings</u> whose slow and persistent power help usher in the age of humanity ... and of course, Dr. Seuss. </p><p>Usually, a tree is a symbol of growth but not always. In <u>To Kill a Mockingbird</u>, Harper Lee has the two children, Scout and Jem, use a tree as a conduit for communication with Boo Radley, the local recluse and scapegoat. They put mutual gifts in a knothole, but when the hole is cemented shut it quickly becomes a symbol of intolerance and injustice which is the greater theme of this masterpiece. </p><p>I just finished reading Betty Smith's classic <u>A Tree Grows in Brooklyn</u>. The tree in the title is called a tree of heaven, really, that is actually the species name. It is an invasive species originally from China which is apropos for immigrant laden Brooklyn. Anyone that grew up in the Northeast US would recognize it. Check out this factsheet: <a href="https://www.agriculture.nh.gov/publications-forms/documents/tree-of-heaven.pdf" target="_blank">Tree of Heaven</a>. Nothing kills this thing which it why it grows so well in cities. Not only is it a symbol of growth but it is one of resilience and strength. It is probably the only symbol in the book. It grows through cement. The narrator is third person omniscient so we get to hear, Francie Nolan, the main character's thoughts on the tree. It "likes" the poor which describes her family and everyone she knows. Something is radical about this tree. Its leaves make "fugitive patterns" on her white pillow case. Francie says this about the tree after someone calls it a "homely thing:" </p><p></p><blockquote>"If there was only one tree like that in the world, you would think it was beautiful, but because there are so many, you just can't see how beautiful it really is."</blockquote><p></p><p>This is a coming of age novel but it is unlike the many that come before it that it is often compared to. <u>Little Women</u> and <u>Anne of Green Gables</u>. It takes place in the gritty world of Brooklyn in the 1910's. This is a world of spousal abuse, alcohol overdoses, pedophile doctors, foot-fetish dentists and animal abuse. This is a not a pretty world Smith is painting. To make it even worse, their neighbors are mean. Poverty means you are cold and hungry and sometimes you have to do things you regrets to survive. Like the tree, you adapt. </p><p>Chapter Ten is the last mention of the tree until the very end of the book, 46 chapters and over 300 pages later. Spoiler: on the last page of the book she tells us that the tree was cut down because it was causing problems with the clothes lines, but a new tree is growing. Another generation gives us hope. They survive however stupid our priorities are. </p><p>Before I end this, let me introduce you some trees in my yard. First off, we have the Big Ass Sugar Maple. I took a picture of this tree everyday for a year and made a movie out of it:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dz3eMLOuuxZmR7e20vpdZMP-Rb3zwsETRWFJP4c7zuVzJX6XI484CtbH1fw9r53R7nitYpyZWUDXz3sXS5ldw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br /><p>These two were transplanted from my backyard to the front where I am trying to create a forest to replace my lawn. As you can see, the one in the front is not doing so well and may not make it. But the other one was like this for at least a couple of years before it finally caught on so I am waiting for this baby to shine. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMmI9JVERm-jv_iyBa7xae2_r7kNa_pZiYSgqV2oKTWu39-KBzUvR_SAwuslXLEzo_Ha1u0wCEVFC3SO0w6ohUSspw69EOwxzdH7PRMa2AUDfpgkPhHXixwrjIP-m_d0vMPV1xgdtkCcQW7vjENdTFHtF8BrspjLlyjsqVLEofKS3DAxhI5L1_PT2d/s4032/transplanted%20trees.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMmI9JVERm-jv_iyBa7xae2_r7kNa_pZiYSgqV2oKTWu39-KBzUvR_SAwuslXLEzo_Ha1u0wCEVFC3SO0w6ohUSspw69EOwxzdH7PRMa2AUDfpgkPhHXixwrjIP-m_d0vMPV1xgdtkCcQW7vjENdTFHtF8BrspjLlyjsqVLEofKS3DAxhI5L1_PT2d/s320/transplanted%20trees.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>One of these from the backyard is next to be transplanted:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG8Ht9Bgn6N_GVECgekRNG08Wx7--Va5f7hX0JO9xS4ICOLWa25k1OwnrgW94pz7FP_qUK7fOVuzSqkj4WAGorBxNAi94fzHmpgNbqdIR7UOdFIP9jMttd9xZGZ5y14OJIOzER_zS9E7BcwVMPyq7qhfDN8OwOI6PD6orFF8SVWecPLrSkFQl_OHKm/s4032/backyard%20tree.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG8Ht9Bgn6N_GVECgekRNG08Wx7--Va5f7hX0JO9xS4ICOLWa25k1OwnrgW94pz7FP_qUK7fOVuzSqkj4WAGorBxNAi94fzHmpgNbqdIR7UOdFIP9jMttd9xZGZ5y14OJIOzER_zS9E7BcwVMPyq7qhfDN8OwOI6PD6orFF8SVWecPLrSkFQl_OHKm/s320/backyard%20tree.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>And here is what the yard looks like in the winter:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfRGmIgWjehgAPWbHnS9S2IKyRM_aI7BO6kGkVSPClrbms0q8L7dEldC4cIJ40Ac9spHC_UhhQSaei7JrzZkjFPMDU2yrbuS9pJlEw15wdIKZ5gbrC0TJ1dilGA8a7fSNAfG435lOUqxbkNQsDQuAPUxwy_X6qbl_p7qy4qF8Aj9uoUsGsecHEMVvv/s3264/yard%20snow.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfRGmIgWjehgAPWbHnS9S2IKyRM_aI7BO6kGkVSPClrbms0q8L7dEldC4cIJ40Ac9spHC_UhhQSaei7JrzZkjFPMDU2yrbuS9pJlEw15wdIKZ5gbrC0TJ1dilGA8a7fSNAfG435lOUqxbkNQsDQuAPUxwy_X6qbl_p7qy4qF8Aj9uoUsGsecHEMVvv/s320/yard%20snow.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>Just lovely. I love these trees. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-62838108143256316622023-04-02T12:24:00.005-07:002023-04-03T05:26:43.663-07:00MLB 2023 - New Rules <p>A lot of new rules will be instituted for this year's baseball season. They are designed to speed up the game and give it more action. Some of them seem small but they may have bigger impact on the game than would seem. </p><p>It is going to be a learning experience, not just for the players and the fans, but the umpires as well. In addition to new rules, Major League Baseball has <a href="https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-umpiring-promotions-for-2023" target="_blank">ten rookie umpires</a> being promoted from the minors this year. The new rules have been used in the minor leagues already so this is a good thing. These young umpires already have experience with them. But they are still rookies and will probably make rookie mistakes. They were promoted because ten umpires have retired, including four crew chiefs. So that is 250 years of experience being replaced by zero years. Expects some fuck ups. </p><p>In addition to on-field rules, we have a big change to schedules. The 2023 season introduces the balanced schedule. This means that every team will play every other team in the league, the first time this has happened since the two leagues merged in 1903. Each team will play their four division opponents 14 times instead of 19. They will play six games against teams in their own league, American and National leagues; one series at home and one away. Then play three games at each team in their opposing league, Interleague Play, alternating home and away each year. This means there is almost no difference between the two leagues now that the National League uses the Designated Hitter (DH), instituted last year. It seems the beauty of the World Series is more and more diminished each year. </p><p>Here are the on field rule changes:</p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Pitch Clock</span></b></p><p><b>New Rule:</b> The rule states that a pitcher must begin his motion before the expiration of the 15 second timer or 20 seconds with at least one runner on base. The pitcher can step off the rubber twice per batter, aka a disengagement, which resets the clock. If they go over the time, the batter gets a ball. If they step off the rubber a third time, it is considered a balk. The batter has to be in the batter's box with at least 8 seconds left on the clock. If they don't, they get a strike. They have one time out per at bat.</p><p>I'm looking forward to the first time ever, a batter gets struck out when the pitcher has only thrown two pitches. </p><p>One of the conceits of baseball is that it has never had a clock like other sports. That era is over. The sport may be too slow for a younger crowd. This rule is a compressor ... to rid the game of all its down time. The average length of each game in the 2022 regular season was three hours and three minutes. The average Spring Training game this year was two hours and 38 minutes. Over 20 minutes have been shaved off. </p><p>Since the pitchers are allowed two disengagements per batter, there should be more base stealing. A disengagement could be stepping off the pitching rubber or throwing to a base that has a runner on it. In 2022, Jon Berti of the Marlins had the most stolen bases of the season with 41. This is not a lot. In 1986, Vince Coleman of the Cardinals had 107. I don't know if the new rule will put us back in that range, but it would be nice. Steals are a lot of fun. So far, teams seem to be running more. In two games, the Baltimore Orioles have stolen ten bases. </p><p>Roger Clemens said he was wondering about leg strength. Those pitchers with the strongest legs will be able to recover the quickest. I hadn't thought of the clock causing more fatigue. We'll see. </p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Larger Bases</span></b></p><p><b>New Rule:</b> The actual size of first, second and third base are increasing from 15 inches to 18. This decreases the distance between these bases by 4.5 inches. Home plate stays the same size so the distance between home and first/third is only reduced by 3 inches. </p><p>Alex Cora calls them pizza boxes. This rule change was done to decrease the number of injuries from player colliding on the base path, but it should increase the amount of hits and stolen base attempts. A larger target to tag, with a slide or not, should mean more base running therefore more action. This should make the game much more interesting because the only thing that players on this level seem to be bad at is base running. A lot of interesting scenarios should come from this. </p><p>Stolen bases in Spring Training this year increased to 792. This is 492 more than last year. The larger bases and the clock had a lot to do with this. I love it. </p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Defensive Shifts</span></b></p><p><b>New Rule: </b>There must be four defensive players on the infield when the pitcher is on the rubber. There must be two players on the left of the second base and two on the right.</p><p>In recent years, this has been a real issue. Advanced stats are so good that teams can tell where a batter is going to hit, most of the time. Using this data, they have been able to design their defense around these stats. This has kept the action to a bare minimum making it a game of balls, strikes and homeruns. Batters have been trying to hit the ball out of the park because getting a single is so difficult. This change should increase the amount of singles, doubles and triples and decrease the homeruns. </p><p>It should also make keeping track in your score book at home a lot more easier as well.</p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Position Players Being Used as Pitchers</span></b></p><p><b>New Rule: </b>The position player can pitch but only under one of these three conditions: 1) if you are leading by ten or more runs and it is the ninth inning, 2) if you are losing by eight runs at any time or 3) the game is in extra innings</p><p>This shouldn't affect game play much. Teams have been putting position players on the mound too much lately. They do this to save their bullpen for another day that is more competitive. This can cause injuries due to players not being stretched out enough to be a pitcher. No big deal here. I don't think there were any rules about this in the past. </p><p>So far the game play has been great. A few missteps have occurred but nothing worth complaining about. Play ball! </p>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-30841499343593782482023-02-25T14:31:00.018-08:002023-02-26T09:42:07.697-08:00My By Pass<p>Dear Blogosphere, </p><p>For those of you who are worried about me because I haven't blogged in a few weeks ... and my last entry was about my heart attack and upcoming by pass ... ta-da ... I survived. Worry no more. </p><p>My surgery was delayed about a week, rescheduled three times, but it eventually happened. The first two delays were because my blood being too thin for surgery. The last time it was delayed, one day more, due to another patient whose needs were more urgent than mine. I was bumped. I was in the hospital for 13 days waiting. It was like being in a hotel, if the staff came into your room several times a day to stab you. That is what it felt like. They drew my blood everyday. I had an IV attached to a pole and I took it with me around the room as well as when I walked laps with around the ward. I had an awful view from my room so I enjoyed walking down the hall to see the outside world. I am grateful for internet connection because the television was pretty bad; why watch a movie if every tenth word is bleeped and ever ten minutes it is interrupted with a commercial? I made best of the situation with Hulu and HBO-Max on my IPad. I even got in a Zoom job interview.</p><p>Not being a people-person, I am more inclined to complain about a group of people than not. That being said, I can't really find anything to complain about the nurses. They poked me with their IVs, shots, woke me to give me drugs etc. They did all this while being very professional and quite pleasant. There were a couple of annoying incidences, but nothing worth repeating. I tried to remember all their names but there were so many of them and they all wore masks, so this was difficult.</p><p>I was shaved the night before the surgery ... my chest because it was opened to get to the heart, my legs for the veins they were going to take from them and my beard for the anesthesia. This is the first time I have been without a beard in over 30 years. They had already shaved me once before so there was only a week and a half of growth to deal with. The first time, it took about two hours. I am a hairy guy. I also had to wash my entire body with some some sterile pads and clean my nostrils with a Q-tip to make sure I didn't have the MRSA virus present. This was the 24th of January. I slept well and awoke the next morning to find a bunch of nurses in my room, doing what nurses do. My wife showed up shortly after. I was heading to surgery. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJXtpKA0qT97J5R0EpClPznrSbIErRPbTWPq333E0pFWy-f-1mJjMNvO68xCitsqIb0m-E9J54ytk-IId7kZhapkhzdfGoirmAZqiDOLYx5ZVb2kdu24FpeSqrimnk2JEpCe16b6E6z5Mo6rjvhaaolXKYmCWnayuTaVNb0SOVRg5xeWfx4AqNLSlv/s3088/IMG_0113.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3088" data-original-width="2320" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJXtpKA0qT97J5R0EpClPznrSbIErRPbTWPq333E0pFWy-f-1mJjMNvO68xCitsqIb0m-E9J54ytk-IId7kZhapkhzdfGoirmAZqiDOLYx5ZVb2kdu24FpeSqrimnk2JEpCe16b6E6z5Mo6rjvhaaolXKYmCWnayuTaVNb0SOVRg5xeWfx4AqNLSlv/s320/IMG_0113.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>During a coronary artery bypass surgery, the surgeon removes a piece of blood vessel from the patient's leg, chest, arm, or belly. In my case it was both my legs. They had problems finding a good vessel in one of my legs so they had to take one from my arm. Then the surgeon uses that piece of blood vessel (called a "graft") to reroute blood around the blocked artery. The surgery is called "bypass surgery" because it bypasses the blockage. This surgery has a 1% fatality rate and a 1% chance of causing a stroke in the patient. These numbers scared me, one in a hundred is too high when I could easily be that one. But that 1% is usually someone very old and sickly and I was the second youngest patient in the cardiology ward and still reasonably healthy. So I felt good about it. This didn't stop me thinking about my death and how I'd be leaving my wife and son. There must have been about 20 people in the Operating Room buzzing around me. So much activity prevented me from thinking about it too much. They scooped me onto a metal table and connected me to the machines. I was asleep shortly thereafter.</p><p>I awoke at about three the next morning in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). I was on a lot of drugs, but still in some pain. I could feel a stinging pain in the incisions in my legs, arm and chest. I had a tube in my chest as well, a catheter and two IVs in my arm. It was pretty awful. I am amazed that by 6AM I was able to stand up (with nursing assistance) and walked a step over to a recliner that was next to the bed. By early afternoon I was out of the ICU and in a regular room. This was amazing because I remember back in the 1980's when my father had his first bypass, he was in very rough shape for a few days. The progress they've made is stunning. </p><p>One of things that changed is that they wake the patient as soon as possible now. They find that the healing is quicker when you are awake. Also, the incisions in the arms and legs are much smaller than they used to be. One of the nurses told me that patients used to complain that most of the post-surgery pain was coming from the arms not the chest. It may be because the surface area is much smaller in the arms and legs than on the chest. Also, the arms and legs are used much more than the chest. So they make very small incisions now in the extremities because the large incisions are just not needed and patients are more comfortable. I have not researched any of this information. This is all from the many conversations I have had with many of the medical professionals that came into my room.</p><p>The stay in the hospital, post-surgery, was surprisingly not that long. I spent more time pre-surgery than post. I had surgery on Wednesday and I was home by Sunday. I was walking around the ward again alone just a couple days after surgery. The hospital food was surprisingly pretty good. I learned, after being there for almost three weeks, what to avoid on the menu. When I ordered, the person on the phone would tell me if I was over my carb or sugar limit for the meal. This was good practice for my new life. My post-heart attack life means keeping close track of calories, carbs and sugar. I have an app on my phone that tells me when I am over or approaching my limit. </p><p>We had a long list of things to go over to get out of the hospital. I was not allowed to lift anything over a ten pounds for a month. That is about the weight of a gallon of milk. I am also not allowed to sit in the front seat of the car when I travel. Of course, this means no driving. These rules are because my chest is not completely healed. I also had a pile of meds that have to take for a variety of reasons. I have to walk for five minutes several times a day which is very tedious when you can't leave the house. My yard, driveway and road are very icy/snowy and it's 13 degrees today ... hence, I don't leave the house. </p><p>I guess if you have a heart attack in Vermont, January is the best month because there isn't a lot you can do here anyway this time of year. It has been a month since the surgery. I've been outside the house only a few times, mostly for doctor's appointments. I've taken walks to the front yard to meet the boy at the bus stop. I've walked to the compost bin and the wilderness camera on my land. My big trip this past weekend was to our town's annual Winter Fest where I enjoyed some good company and the chili cook off. I'm hoping by the Spring I will be running again and most of this is behind me. </p><p><br /></p>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-63619874647786321212023-01-16T12:04:00.004-08:002023-01-16T13:31:37.920-08:00My Heart Attack<p>I have not been blogging a lot lately. It is an awful twist of fate and irony that my motivation for writing is directly proportional to how busy or stressed I am. If I am busy or stressed, I am full of ideas, I want to write. I was laid off from my Software Engineer position (that I held for 14.5 years) last July. You think I'd be spending a lot of time blogging, because I don't have a lot else to do, but this just isn't the case. I have about twenty post started but each time I look at them with intention of working on them, I just can't do it. No motivation. When I look at my blog and I see years when I posted about 40 different entries, these are also the periods in my life when I am the most busy or stressed. Such is life. </p><p>Wednesday 1/11/23 started like any other. I got up with the boy, got his snack box ready and walked with him out to the bus. I returned to the warmth of the house, I made coffees, read email, looked at jobs on LinkedIn and listened to my morning podcasts. I ate an egg sandwich for breakfast, fed the dogs and then did some yoga on the Wii. Nothing out of the ordinary. At around noon, I noticed I had a dull pain along the length of my left arm that went across the top of my chest down to the top of my right shoulder. It was an odd pain. I have a lot of muscle pain, always have, but this felt different, like nothing I had ever felt before. I walked into the living room and laid down. I tried to sleep it off which I had zero success of doing. The pain wasn't that strong and never was, just very uncomfortable. I also had a lot of coffee at this point so I couldn't relax much either. </p><p>I started to worry that this might be a heart attack. I remembered a conversation I had with my doctor when he told me that in addition to the pain, heart attacks usually come with shortness of breath. Since I didn't have that, I waited ... but not very long. I called my doctor to discuss. He said "oh oh." He suggested I get to the emergency room, not to drive, but have someone bring me. If I didn't have someone to bring me, call 911. I then called my wife to see how close she was to the house. She was about 35 minutes away in Burlington. I called 911. I texted her and she left to meet me at the hospital.</p><p>Fairfax rescue was conferenced into my call almost immediately. This is my first experience with 911. I am impressed. I waited about 15 minutes for the ambulance to show up. I live on a dirt road, a town away. This was quite fast. I tried to occupy my time to manage the freak out. Nothing much worked. I put the dogs outside, I grabbed my phone and Kindle, put them in my jacket and sat at the puzzle table looking down the driveway. Doing the jigsaw puzzle was a Herculean task at this point. I didn't get a single piece. </p><p>When the ambulance arrived, they tried to back down the driveway. It has been unseasonably warm lately so when they went into the mud (aka my lawn), I feared they would get stuck and I'd have to wait for another ambulance or a tow truck. But she, the driver, pulled herself out just fine. Four EMTs got me quickly in the ambulance, attached to IVs and EKG machine. I looked like a borg and still do. Here is a picture of what I look like:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-FNfDXyHBrK3gK2IPLUmFMY39GFVnAW-bROMK7hCs3TQ11fZj031IoC0QrLwmexzOnunrz0tvgpAKT4rbCVQ7R36x6pOTsP5v3HA_Y4Psk6xw0RGN8qQpkIVGuJZ6r0j0BHYytJ8J8hpmh2A4prLcwwJG0sVkf3RlgXJn6FILL6ikpkkRk-bbqz5J/s780/borg2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="437" data-original-width="780" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-FNfDXyHBrK3gK2IPLUmFMY39GFVnAW-bROMK7hCs3TQ11fZj031IoC0QrLwmexzOnunrz0tvgpAKT4rbCVQ7R36x6pOTsP5v3HA_Y4Psk6xw0RGN8qQpkIVGuJZ6r0j0BHYytJ8J8hpmh2A4prLcwwJG0sVkf3RlgXJn6FILL6ikpkkRk-bbqz5J/s320/borg2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>They asked me a ton of questions about my health history. I didn't realize at the time but I'd be answering these same questions, in different forms, for the next week to about twenty different people. <div>Other than the bump we hit, that sent everyone off the ground, the ambulance drive was uneventful and I thank all the drivers that pulled over for us. Also, of course, to the EMT crew as well. I felt so much better once they gave me nitroglycerin tablets and felt in the care of true professionals. </div><div><br /></div><div>Since that day, I have been in the hospital, pain free five days now. I have a lovely private room at UVM medical, the staff here is amazing. I had a mild heart attack. They did some diagnostics hoping that they would be able to repair the problem with some stents. Unfortunately, there is too much blockage. Perhaps the mild heart attack saved my life because they never would have noticed the blockage without it. I have been in the hospital and I will be here quite a bit more until my bypass on the 20th. Wish me luck. I feel confident in my full recovery. <br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-47374950783540201602022-09-29T09:55:00.006-07:002022-09-29T09:55:53.937-07:00Romania <p>The world described in <u>I Must Betray You</u> by Ruta Sepetys reminds me of Orwell's <u>1984</u>, but unlike that book, it is not a fictional world that she describes but Romania in 1989. I find historical fiction like this particularly fascinating because is not distant history she describes, but an era that I lived through from a safe distance. I remember hearing about Ceaușescu, their communist leader, on the news, but I knew little about them. While I was attending keg parties and cramming for college, Romanians my age were fighting and dying for their basic human rights. I know I am not alone and many Americans know even less than I do about this part of the world. Few of us know more than that it is where Transylvania is, home of an infamous vampire created by an Irish writer of fiction. Many don't even don't even realize Transylvania is a real place, but think it a fictional land like Oz or Middle Earth. The reality is that Dracula's Romania was probably a better world to live in than communist Romania.</p><p>After World War II, Romania became friends with USSR. Due to Soviet influence, communism took hold and they forced their King, Michael, to abdicate and live in exile. Nicolae Ceaușescu took power in 1960 and stayed in power until he was overthrown in 1989, the last among their neighbors to overthrow the yoke of communistic rule. During his rule, Ceaușescu pulled a fast one on the West when he convinced the rulers of the free world that he was a benevolent ruler when the exact opposite was true. Of the leaders behind the iron curtain, he was perhaps the most monstrous, but because he stood up to the Soviet Union, American presidents (Carter, Ford, Nixon) and British royalty held photo opts with him and hosted state dinners in his honor. Many of us got pissed when Trump did so with Kim Jong-un. This is similar, except the world knows of the human rights abuses in North Korea. The world knew nothing of what was going on in Romania at the time of Ceaușescu. The free world knew little about life in the Soviet Union at time, but we knew even less of Romania. </p><p>Romania's economy did well in the post war period which continued into the 1970's but by the 1980's, their debts came due and extreme rationing measures were instituted. Electricity was turned off periodically, similar to what is happening in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/12/world/middleeast/lebanon-blackouts.html" target="_blank">Lebanon </a>now. Ceaușescu government's had no problem producing power, but they sold it to the Soviet Union to cover their debts rather than supplying it to their citizens. Sepetys's book cites stories of babies dying in hospitals because they lost electricity during the birth. This affected everyday lives as well. Just imagine your dinner being interrupted by the loss of power, you'd be stuck with a half cooked meal or perhaps eating in the dark. It gets very cold in Romania. They would heat up bricks to keep their feet warm at night. </p><p>Inflation was so bad that no one used the Romanian currency. Cigarettes like Kents and BTs were used as currency. Service workers, like doctors and plumbers, would have stockpiles of cigarettes and other contrabands. They could make deals with the black market for security and actually make a decent living while those around them starved. The state run stores had long lines. You could wait hours, after a long day of work, and get nothing because they were out of stock before your turn came. Most of their life was spent working or in line. She describes people being very tired.</p><p>We hear a lot about Nazi Germany's Gestapo and East Germany's Stasi. Romania's Securitate is just as notorious. An estimated one-in-ten Romanian citizens were informers, called "Reporters," for the Securitate. They were a brutal police force that detained thousands and subjected them to torture, starvation and death. In a regime of total control, you could be reported for having contraband like an American dollar or any product that was not sold in Romanian. Ceaușescu was trying to increase the birth rate so he'd use the Securitate to monitor women. Population growth was badly needed to produce more workers. If you were childless, you were taxed. Women were periodically checked for pregnancy at their place of employment. </p><p>When you live in such a world, rumors can make things worse. Perception is reality. Any injustice you can think of is believable. When you believe that all the phones are bugged and that everyone you know could be an informer, whenever true or not, can be very stressful. They whispered in their own homes so that they couldn't be heard. </p><p>I recently reminded my son that he hit the lottery just by being born in the free world. No doubt he doesn't get it, just like I didn't. I don't think I ever will completely understand, but this book put it in better perspective. </p>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-37615413530808845512022-06-24T12:47:00.001-07:002022-06-24T12:47:48.529-07:00Why Pro-Gun People Always Bring Up Chicago<p>In reading old blog posts of mine, I have come to realize that posts with lots of stats don't read well. So I have been trying to keep them to a bare minimum which is really difficult when it comes to the subject of gun laws. Gun laws work, we know this. Lets keep it simple, this could be shown with two lists. </p><p>Here are the US states with lowest rates of firearm mortality in 2021 according to the CDC: </p><p>CA, CT, HI, MA, NY, NJ & RI. </p><p>Here the states with the strictest gun laws: </p><p>CA, CT, HI, IL, MA, NY, NJ & MD.</p><p>Notice the cross over? Ya, I am saying it ... strict gun laws bring down the incidents of murder. Duh! This is pretty obvious. But yet, when I talk to gun rights people, they always say the opposite that gun laws don't work. They always use the example of Chicago. They usually don't mention New York, LA or Boston all of whom have historically low gun crime. </p><p>On the surface, they are correct. Gun laws aren't working in Chicago. Cook County, Illinois and Chicago have some of the country's highest rate of gun death including suicide and homicide. Chicago's has 25 gun murders per 100,000 citizens But it is a lot more complicated than that. Both Chicago and Illinois have very strict gun laws, but look at Chicago on the map, it on the edge of Illinois very close to Wisconsin and Indiana. If you want to buy a gun, legally, you just need to make a short drive to Milwaukee (murder rate of 32), Gary (64) or South Bend (23).</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhbsSv-F2VVjFW0wZZ8jVkawkr5nQTqpTL5zRh8BzSNGwwprrzClSnsJkv8rKuqpzDhPrRSNC49z-_fHRFjkZ6mdsF9vDSiAAuJ8SK4vSeQdxdZfJspGQMOzQ3UG8B3AMOeZ6ZM72-qj_EDmoCyXp63dFwinkLURi56DKOjPUmFWt0rRbvZaB9InxF8" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="622" data-original-width="635" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhbsSv-F2VVjFW0wZZ8jVkawkr5nQTqpTL5zRh8BzSNGwwprrzClSnsJkv8rKuqpzDhPrRSNC49z-_fHRFjkZ6mdsF9vDSiAAuJ8SK4vSeQdxdZfJspGQMOzQ3UG8B3AMOeZ6ZM72-qj_EDmoCyXp63dFwinkLURi56DKOjPUmFWt0rRbvZaB9InxF8" width="245" /></a></div><br />Detroit (45) has the same problem but it is even worse because their state, Michigan, has lax gun laws so Detroiters just need to go to the suburbs to buy their guns. <div><br /></div><div>In comparison, someone who wants to buy a gun legally in New York City, can't go to the suburbs or the closest states (CT & NJ). They would have to drive to PA or VT which is a significant effort. They will either make a road trip, buy the gun illegally or not buy it at all. The last option is what we are hoping for a potential mass shooter. The goal of gun laws is not to stop all murders, which would be impossible, but to stop some of them. They are succeeding </div><div><p></p><p>By the way, Jackson Mississippi has the highest murder rate in the country of cities over 200,000 people of 69 per 100,000 people. It is very easy to buy a gun in MS. Those liberal cities where the politicians are supposedly so soft on crime are very low. The four largest city in Texas have the higher murder rates than New York (3), LA (7) or Boston (7): Houston (15), Dallas (13), San Antonio (9) and Forth Worth (9).</p><p>When I was kid, both new New York and Boston were known for their violent crime, but a lot has changed since then. They are safe cities and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Congratulation to everyone who has worked so hard to make this true.</p><p>I apologize for all the stats. I was originally worse, much worse. Through the magic of editing I kept to a bare minimum.</p></div>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-29984692606377728582022-05-03T12:56:00.003-07:002022-05-03T12:56:42.746-07:00Marvel is Liberal, DC conservative<p>I recall a fireside chat with some college friends. This guy, a friend by marriage, was telling me that he could never get into Marvel Comics. Sometimes you couldn't tell the good guys from the bad guys, he said. I am paraphrasing, of course, this is a memory through the fog of three or four decades. He told me that he preferred DC Comics because this line was more well-defined. It was this conversation where I first got the notion that Marvel is for liberals and DC for conservatives. </p><p>This is true about DC Comics, at least most of them. Most of the classic DC Comics came out of the conservative 1940's and 50's. The first Superman comic, Action #1, was published in 1938. You knew where he stood, "truth, justice and the American way," as stated in the 1940's radio shows. Lets face it, he is Christ-like, sent from the heavens. When he was fighting someone, you knew who the good guy and the bad guy was. In the universe of the comic, the cops and media always supported him and feared his enemies. He was their savior and they stood by him. A well defined line between good and evil is a very conservative idea. Clear and concise. It always bothered me that Superman fought crime and then as Clark Kent wrote about himself. This is a bit too fascist for me. He wears red, white and blue and fights to preserve the status quo. Conservatives love this stuff. It never comes up that he is technically an illegal alien, literally. </p><p>Most of the other major DC comics have similar motifs: Aqua Man, The Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow. They fight evil and it is obvious. One major character that doesn't fit this mold is Batman.He really toggles the good/evil line at times but by all other counts, he is a conservative. He blames government for the death of his parents, he uses his own resources to tackle the crime problem and beats up on the poor and the insane. The insane are almost always portrayed awfully in the DC universe a la Arkham Asylum. When you have a DC "bad" guy, he/she is evil or insane, usually both. </p><p>The only exception of the DC major heroes is Wonder Woman, the only woman in the bunch. She is a feminist icon, working in a man's profession and trying to change the world. Most female DC heroes are simply female counterparts of male heroes: Super Girl, Bat Woman, Hawkwoman, etc. Although, I do admit Marvel has done the same with She-Hulk and Spider Woman. </p><p>Marvel came out of the rebellious liberal 60's. Liberals are wishy washy. They never met a nuance they didn't love. Marvel is full of them. Spiderman is a struggling college student who moonlights as a photographer for the Daily Bugle who portrays him as a menace. The cops want to arrest him. His Aunt May is afraid of him. The Hulk is hunted by the military. Thor is a demigod. In the Marvel universe gods are just very powerful beings from different realms. The X-Men are actively trying to change the world making it safe for mutants (aka the outsider) which is a neat sci-fi way of saying homosexual, black or any other counterculture. Their leader is disabled, Professor X is bound to a wheel chair. </p><p>The differently abled are well presented in the Marvel universe. Professor X's son, Legion, has multiple personality disorder. Daredevil is blind, Moon Knight has schizophrenia, Deadpool is in constant pain, Puck is a little person and Hawkeye, the Avenger, is deaf. The disabled don't fair so well in the DC universe. The first disabled super-hero, Caption Mid-Nite, introduced in 1941 was blinded by a grenade and discovered he could see in the dark. Even comic geeks like me, have never heard of this guy. It is difficult finding a major DC character with anything close to a disability. They are idealized beings, like Greek gods. The best example is probably Cyborg, who is an amputee whose parts have been replaced by machines. Not incredibly inspiring. </p><p>Marvel villains are also more complex than DC's. Sometimes they are extreme evil, but often they are just people who have had a raw deal. Magneto grew up in Auschwitz and only survived with the help of his mutant abilities. He grew to hate non-mutants because of the experience in the camp. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-3f4Ex2uTg6RWCv35iybWeBRjvuyYn1DE-exHV0ikQybd08y8sy_tDTO1uBZ_GSCm5wKZDJRtCDiLmWJVJGF-NjVdMQV3sU25xiVMr3S7Jya15BlCDHM9Dj9rlS-wFW3tkrBDD7TNiDnJn32axBNr-63NqeIfEJNvxghEK_a3GZbh0iMUi_apYqPU/s750/main-qimg-5a45d3cdeecae7641f55df70b00477c7-lq.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="489" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-3f4Ex2uTg6RWCv35iybWeBRjvuyYn1DE-exHV0ikQybd08y8sy_tDTO1uBZ_GSCm5wKZDJRtCDiLmWJVJGF-NjVdMQV3sU25xiVMr3S7Jya15BlCDHM9Dj9rlS-wFW3tkrBDD7TNiDnJn32axBNr-63NqeIfEJNvxghEK_a3GZbh0iMUi_apYqPU/s320/main-qimg-5a45d3cdeecae7641f55df70b00477c7-lq.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>Galactus is a cosmic entity that requires the eating of planets for sustenance. Thanos actually wants to save the universe by reducing our population by half; he's an environmentalist with simply too much power. The Submariner is also a radical environmentalist, protecting the ocean from humans, after all he is the prince of Atlantis. Can we blame him? Also, can we really blame Red Skull for doing evil, he was chosen as a teenager by Hitler and then groomed by the Fuhrer himself. <p>Marvel's Iron Man may seem like an exception. In the early days, Tony Stark is just another millionaire industrialist (weapons manufacturer) using his technological toys to defeat bad guys. But in later issues, he sees how war is destroying the world and how his lifestyle is killing him (alcoholism). He changes Stark Industries to green energy, cleans up his personal life and ends up being a good liberal. </p><p>The one true exception in the Marvel universe is Captain America. Perhaps this is because he predates the 60's. He premiered in 1940 published by Timely Comics. He fought Nazis and communists. He was later reintroduced in Marvel as a superhero fighting bad guys in 1963. He is still a very conservative character. His powers are a result of a righteous government experiment that worked. He is the idealized blond hair American guy who was even born on the 4th of July. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidT75qu4FewvtaR-YscoHdQTRdoXsW-Jt8tltYEwQ_ImKc0_QBKVYEKbA__kdUJICKownUheUsKCVYgW20RR_4cbbw95W_HW5WWx2l7IvWf6gDFlmgZyVHGKxXzcl7zbbOfY4Dbp8tXU_2DbP7P3ArK0qRqSukyr3wEXEwTtbZ-msOwjlRT5TURPS_/s366/Captain_America_Comics-1_(March_1941_Timely_Comics).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="366" data-original-width="259" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidT75qu4FewvtaR-YscoHdQTRdoXsW-Jt8tltYEwQ_ImKc0_QBKVYEKbA__kdUJICKownUheUsKCVYgW20RR_4cbbw95W_HW5WWx2l7IvWf6gDFlmgZyVHGKxXzcl7zbbOfY4Dbp8tXU_2DbP7P3ArK0qRqSukyr3wEXEwTtbZ-msOwjlRT5TURPS_/s320/Captain_America_Comics-1_(March_1941_Timely_Comics).jpg" width="226" /></a></div><p>Iron Man, Captain America along with The Avengers were not very good comics. This is one the amazing things about the film adaptions because they work so much better in film. </p><p>For a long time, every black super hero had the word "black" in their name: Black Lightning, Black Panther, Black Goliath etc. This is a trope that had to end. As you guessed it, Marvel has more black heroes in more prominent roles. Marvel's Power Man, Hero for Hire or Luke Cage (this comic was renamed many times) was the first American comic, 1972, starring a black character. It was created in the wake of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaxploitation" target="_blank">blaxploitation </a>films of that era and it was pretty bad. He had a catchphrase "Sweet Christmas!" He is a street level hero with the stories based in a high crime section of New York City much like Daredevil. Comics are still the realm of the white guy but now there is a lot more diversity than ever. Marvel's latest version of Ms. Marvel is a character named Kamala Khan, introduced in 2013, and she is Muslim. </p><p>I must apologize if I am wrong about DC. Other than Batman and The Watchmen, I have not read a lot of their comics. This is mostly because I don't like them, never have. I love nuance. While writing this, I've had to wonder if I am a liberal because I read Marvel as a kid, or did I read Marvel because I have always been a liberal. I still have no idea. I did not grow up in a political family but I did read my first comic, <i>The Incredible Hulk #2</i>, by looking through my brother's comics. Perhaps if he had a copy of Hawkman lying around, I might be Trumper right now. I doubt it. </p>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-27594253268833836112022-04-28T13:19:00.002-07:002022-04-28T13:19:39.489-07:00Contact: Book versus Movie<p>A few decades ago, I read <u>The Christmas Carol</u> by Charles Dickens. I love Dickens and I have been seeing television versions of it since I was a child, probably at least two dozens. Heck, even the <i>Six Million Dollar Man</i> did a version of it. I was curious as to how accurate they were to the book. I discovered that reading it wasn't as enjoyable as I'd expected. Really. It was beautifully written of course, but because I knew the story so well, there were no surprises, same characters, nothing new. Most of these film and play productions of the Christmas classic, it ends up, are actually quite accurate. I was expecting my reading of Carl Sagan's <u>Contact </u>to be like this because I had seen the movie so many times. It was not, at all.</p><p><i>Contact</i>, the 1997 Robert Zemeckis film, is one of my favorites. Jodie Foster in a thought-provoking hard science fiction (a real sci-fi story, not like <i>Star Wars</i>) with ethical and theological paradoxes ... what could be better? Not much actually. I have seen this film many times. Much is different in the book, which makes it an enjoyable read, but unfortunately, it might be one of those few books where the movie is better than the book. </p><p>**Fair warning: I tell you now, if you have not read the book or seen the movie, there are spoilers coming. You have been warned. You may want to stop and watch the movie now. You won't regret it. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjMqLOiNM23B95uMMfqRsQfaYcixqSAMWKSGdDh4qYaxOa0yGJEdccObOnE-b51fZACbQLckYGwuNdmVhe1J8Krlw6eNKuDxpcg1vZ6B1kUwhhQwrhtfqdWM6Vu_cGlKDKiBhHLWmewyNxkHsrev6LMJAwwDjjJ1zL1JrpWwvO0N7NviQggyytT7Wq/s4032/IMG_3172.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjMqLOiNM23B95uMMfqRsQfaYcixqSAMWKSGdDh4qYaxOa0yGJEdccObOnE-b51fZACbQLckYGwuNdmVhe1J8Krlw6eNKuDxpcg1vZ6B1kUwhhQwrhtfqdWM6Vu_cGlKDKiBhHLWmewyNxkHsrev6LMJAwwDjjJ1zL1JrpWwvO0N7NviQggyytT7Wq/s320/IMG_3172.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p>The first thing you should realize is that it was originally conceived of as a movie, not a book, in 1977. Sagan and Ann Druyan (whom he later married) wrote the story. It bounced around Hollywood for a few years taking on many different forms, in the meantime, Sagan decided to write the novel which was eventually published by Simon and Schuster in 1985. It reached #7 on the New York Times Best Seller list. It returned to the list in 1997, briefly, when the movie came out. </p><p>In the book, we get a lot more of Ellie Arroway's (Jodie Foster) back story. She was based on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Tarter" target="_blank">Jill Tarter</a>, an astronomer for SETI. Her name comes from Eleanor Roosevelt and Francois-Marie Arouet (aka Voltaire). We do get the scene of her with her father conversing about the stars and he dies while she is still young, but the book also shows her mom remarrying a very pious man whom Ellie does not get along with and there are some surprises to their relationship as well. In the movie, her mother dies while giving birth to Ellie and is a non-entity in her life. She calls her mother throughout the book. We also read about Ellie going to college with her sexual exploits and the continued sexism she gets exposed to her in her field. Many characters are in the book that don't make it into the movie. Her lover is Presidential Science Adviser Ken der Heer. He isn't even in the movie. The movie has Ellie in a relationship with Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey) which is only hinted at in the book. She seems to be attracted to him but is more interested in their intellectual sparring than anything physical. </p><p>Some characters from the movie are not in the book at all, like the guys in the lab. They are there, but they aren't named. Remember the blind guy, Kent (portrayed by William Fichtner). Not in the book. One of the most memorable scenes in the movie is when Kent actually hears the message from space in the static, he hears structure while others cannot. I could imagine this scene was added to create drama to the moment of discovery. This character is based on a real guy, a scientist that worked at SETI, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Cullers" target="_blank">Kent Cullers</a>. Rob Lowe's Richard Rank is a parody of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Reed" target="_blank">Ralph Reed</a> and is not in the book. The book does have Billy Jo Rankin but he is less extreme and less cartoonish. I can understand this change since the book came out in the 80's and much had changed with religion in American, a la the Christian Coalition, by the late 90's when the film came out. It needed an upgrade. James Wood owns the character of Kitz. Kitz who is in the book and is still quite obnoxious but Wood pushes him into the realm of belligerence which makes him much more interesting. He is a character you love to hate. </p><p>One big change is that the US President, in the book, has a big role and the president is a woman. The movie only shows the President once and it is Bill Clinton. Zemeckis very creatively uses news footage from 1996 of Clinton talking about a Mars rock, but the clips are so vague it appears that he is talking about the message from Vega. Zemeckis received a complaint letter from the White House because they never granted permission for the footage. The original plan was for Sydney Poitier to play the president but he turned the role down. So the president wasn't a woman in the film but was supposed to be black, both of which were quite progressive for their time. </p><p>There is more science in the book which is a good thing. Carl Sagan is one of the best science educators of the 20th century and it makes sense that even in his only book of fiction, he continues to educate. As I read I learned about the star Vega and Polaris, about the moons of our solar system, about message decoding, radio and television waves, and about the general nature of the universe. A number of compelling conversations/arguments take place between scientists and religious folks throughout the book. These are fascinating, as they are in the movie, but the book has more of them. </p><p>Of course, the movie is filled with stuff not in the book that must have been added because it works. Another memorable scene is Ellie laying on her Thunderbird's hood with headphones listening to the "cosmic static." Not in the book, but it is a fine scene. Her relationship with Dumlin (Tom Skerritt's character) is strained, but it is a much bigger part of the movie than it is in the book. He was her faculty adviser and was disappointed in her career choice of searching for E.T.</p><p>The message is prime numbers (mathematics is the language of science) and is being broadcast from distance aliens with hidden instructions to build a machine. They don't know what the machine is, a Trojan Horse perhaps. It takes about a decade to build in the book, but it doesn't seem that long in the movie. The world builds two in the movie, but three in the book because the USSR had to build one as well. Written in 1985 after all, the Cold War is still raging in Sagan's future. The book's machine has five seats while the movie's only has one for Ellie. In the book, her trip across the galaxy takes place on New Year's Eve 1999; there is no mention of the Y2K bug. The trip takes 20 minutes Earth time while the movie has it taking just a few seconds. </p><p>The oddest thing about the book is the terrorist attack. This is a big moment in the movie. Ellie recognizes a religious fanatic at a testing of the machine and he has a bomb on him. It goes off and destroys it. It is quite a spectacle. While reading this in the book, I was reminded that Sagan is not a novelist, but a scientist. It only took place in one paragraph that ended the chapter. I wasn't even sure it had happened so I reread it. It was there, but very vague. The next chapter started with Drumlin's funeral so it was there. I don't think I would have known what happened if I hadn't seen the movie. </p><p>I am a non-believer. I call myself an Atheist but at times, I found this to be extreme. Atheism seems to be fundamentalist approach to science. If I had to come up with a name for what I am, in regards to the whole God question, I would have to call myself an Agnostic leaning strongly towards Atheism. I have always wondered what I would need to convince me that there is a God, any god. I've never been able to come with anything. What I love about the end of <u>Contact</u>, is that it answers this question. The movie didn't come near this. When Ellie talks to the alien (in the guise of her father), they talk about the number π (aka pi). They talk about how it goes on and on, never repeating, but somewhere in there, the alien says, is a string of ones and zeroes. In this string of binary digits is a message. The book ends Ellie spending her time looking for this message. A message being discovered in pi would do it for me. It is interesting that a book by a great scientist, helped me figure out what I'd need to believe in God. </p><p><br /></p><p></p>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-86474514578356028912022-02-14T11:42:00.002-08:002022-02-14T11:42:34.400-08:00Picks of the Year 2021: Television<p>I have been watching my share of the tube during this pandemic. I usually do, but now it seems to be its own pandemic. The escape seems addicting. I could cancel all my streaming services (Hulu, Amazon, Netflix, PBS) and survive on HBO only. A lot a good content is on these other services but they are few and far between, while almost everything is amazing on HBO. </p><p>What is still good? <b>Sex Education</b> season 3 was still very good which is unusual on Netflix. <b>Succession</b> on HBO is still an amazing drama. The Roy's may be my favorite fictional dysfunctional family. <b>Big Mouth </b>on Netflix seems to have jumped the shark. It has been taken over by the imaginary characters leaving little room for the pubescent character's stories. It seems to be more about shock value now than anything <b>Star Trek: Discovery</b> season 3 might be the best season yet where we get a look at the Federation in the 31st Century ... hint: things aren't good, not at all. </p><p>This post isn't about those shows, the stand-bys, but the new ones that I've discovered last year. I've tried to rank them in order my favorites to least, but this is always an impossible task. </p><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Raised By Wolves </b>(HBO): This one truly surprised me. I knew nothing about it going in. I just discovered it on HBO while clicking around. I didn't want to see because I thought someone was "raised by wolves" but fortunately, these wolves are metaphoric. They are androids who accompany babies from Earth to a distant planet, Kepler 22b, to start humanity anew. What's this? Sci-fi, real sci-fi on television. Most television that claims to be sci-fi is actually just an action shows or soap operas taking place in space. <b>Raised By Wolves</b> is real sci-fi and it is fantastic tackling issues like religion vs. science, love, survival, hope and the nature of humanity. Season two just dropped and I'm loving it. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Dopesick</u></b> mini-series (Hulu) - This is another badly named show that might turn off a few viewers. It is in reference to a stage in addiction where you are no longer sick from what caused you to take a drug, it is now the drug making you sick. The withdrawal is making you sick. The show is a drama showing the opioid crisis from all angles, the doctors, addicts, pharmaceutical salespeople and the Sackler family. It is based on the 2018 book by Beth Macy with the same name. It stars Michael Keaton as an Appalachian doctor who becomes addicted himself. My life has been personally impacted by this crisis so I watched this one with particular skepticism but it was very well done. I didn't see any major problems with it. It is entertaining, moving and educational. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Station 11</b> (HBO) - This is a show about a pandemic. Imagine that! But it is much worst than our current real pandemic. It kills about 90% of the planet's population quickly leaving our protagonists struggling for survival. The narrative bounces back and forth between pre-pandemic, to the few days into it, to ten years later. It centers around a group of actors and a graphic novel ... it is confusing at times but truly captivating. I hear the book, by Canadian author Emily St. John Mandel, is even better. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Mare of Eastown </b>(HBO) - Kate Winslet plays a police detective in suburban Phillie investigating the murder of a teen mother. Great writing and acting brings this one home. I didn't figure out the entire mystery until the last episode. This was a seven episode limited series that they are talking about a second series but nothing is planned yet. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Landscapers</b> mini-series (HBO) - This is a short series about a pleasant elderly British couple who kill her parents and bury them in their suburban garden. It is based on actual events. It is not gruesome as it sounds. You barely see the crime. It takes place a few years after the event actually happened and after they confess to the crime. The narrative has a phenomenal mix of reality and delusion.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>30 Coins</b> (HBO) - Here's another surprise. I am not a huge fan of horror, but if it is well done, it can be a real treat. This is a Spanish horror series based in the tiny town of Pedraza, Segovia, where one of the 30 silver coins that Judas used to betray Jesus are found. Apparently, if you possess all 30, you can summon demons. The setting in beautiful and I found it to be a lot of fun. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Investigation</b> mini-series (HBO) - This is another one based on real events. It is Danish and it is a drama about the murder of journalist Kim Wall, something I knew nothing about before I watched the show. Six episodes long, it keeps you engaged the whole time. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>White Lotus</b> (HBO) - This is a sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, sometimes cringy drama about a resort in Hawaii. It does a great job tackling class issues and the dividing line between the guests, locals and staff. It is scheduled for a second season which is hard to believe due to the Shakespearean tragedy like ending. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Squid Game</b> (Netflix) - This Korean show was very popular, probably the most successful Korean show ever in America. I enjoyed it but not as much as a lot of people. It is gruesome and it doesn't have a lot of likeable characters. They all seem to get what is coming to them. It reminds me of the original <b>Star Trek</b> episode <i>The Gamesters of Triskelion</i> where the wealthy place bets on the poor while they kill each other. Very dark! Most Netflix shows really taper off after the first season. Hopefully this isn't the case for <b>Squid Game</b>. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Search Party</b> (HBO) - This show is a lot of fun and it gets more outrageous each season. It is about a group of four self-absorbed millennials trying very hard to be good people and failing miserably. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Head</b> (HBO) - This might be the worst named series ever. It is a mini-series thriller based in the South Pole. The plot revolves around a severed head. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Beforeigners</b> (HBO) - This is a Norwegian sci-fi buddy cop show about time refugees that keep showing up in the Oslo harbor. They come from three eras, Vikings, 18th century and the stone age, and they try to integrate into 21th Century culture. Murder ensures. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Hacks</b> (HBO) - This is about a Joan River type of comedian trying to rekindle her image. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Beartown </b>(HBO) - Norwegian hockey team ala <b>Friday Night Lights</b> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><b>The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story</b> (FX via Hulu) - This is based on the real events that lead to the assassination of the fashion designer, Versace, something I knew nothing about<div><br /></div><div><b>Bridgerton</b> (Netflix) - This is a fun period piece about a couple pretending to be in love to get their family off their case and then they accidentally fall for each other. This premise gets old fast, the B plots really don't hold it up.</div><div><br /><div><b>Stargirl </b>(HBO) - This is based on the DC comic and it has the same problem that most comic book shows and movies do, it stops being interesting after the origin stories. Teenagers may love this one. </div><div><br /><div><b>You </b>(Netflix)- This is told in the first person by an obsessive stalker. It suffers from what many Netflix series does. The first season was decent but the second is horrendous. I couldn't get through it. </div><div><br /><div><div><b>Titans (HBO), Superman and Lois (HBO)</b> and <b>Doom Patrol (HBO) - </b>all have the same problem as<b> Star Girl.</b> They are entertaining until they aren't.</div><div><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Nevers</b> (HBO) - I am sick of superpowers. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Call the Midwife</b> (PBS) - If you are into woman screaming in pain each episode, this is your show. It is fine if not for that. I lasted about a season. </div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Dr. Who</b> - I give up trying to like Dr. Who. I don't get it. I never have. Whatever doctor, whatever series, I just don't like it and I am going to strop trying. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The <b>Sex and the City </b>reboot was so bad, I only watched one episode. It might even be worse than the movies. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;">2022 has been great so far, I've discovered <b>Pennyworth </b>and <b>Y: The Last Man</b>. If there is no baseball this year, you can expect this post to be very long next year. </div>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-18542404424877670412022-01-07T13:39:00.006-08:002022-01-07T13:39:40.679-08:00Picks of the Year 2021: Music<p>Due to COVID, I only saw one show this year, Modest Mouse. It is amazing how great it felt being out seeing a show. It seems we took this sort of stuff for granted. If anything this pandemic helps us to put things in perspective. It was a phenomenal show, but I think I may have felt that way just seeing anyone up on the stage playing tunes. We were an easy crowd. It was a beautiful summer night the Essex Fairgrounds here in Northeastern VT. I had just bought their new album. I hadn't seen them before. They played "Float On," one of my favorites, in the encore. It was nice have some normalcy back. The only show of the year was, obviously, my pick for the best show of the years. Lets hope that 2022 has a lot of shows to choose from.</p><p>I bought 12 full length albums in 2021 and one EP. I listed them below in order of favorites, most favorite to the least, but I have to say, it was a good year because I liked all of them. This was difficult to do and I will probably change the order many times before I hit publish. There are some great new discoveries this year that I am very pleased with as well, like Bob Schneider, The Weather Station, Iceage and White Horse.</p><p><b>Bob Schneider </b>-<i><b> In a Roomful of Blood with a Sleeping Tiger</b></i></p><p>I never heard of this guy until this year. I don't remember how I discovered him. Perhaps he just appeared on one of my Spotify lists. When you listen to online services like Spotify and Pandora, the artist doesn't get a lot of money per play (like pennies), so I like to buy the songs I like. </p><p>Bob is an Austin, Texas based musician from Michigan. He used to be the lead singer of a band called Ugly Americans. His latest album has some real gems on it, like "Thor," "Lord of the Flies," "I Love Life" and "The Sun's Coming." His lyrics are very tender and poignant without being trite. "Thor" instead of being a Norse god, he is a suburban white guy who has anger issues and a very touching song. </p><p>I'm looking forward to checking out his back catalogue. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Aimee Mann </b>- <b><i>Queens of the Summer Hotel</i></b></p><p>I usually buy Aimee's new albums when they come out. Few song writers alive can turn a phrase or an image like her. What I love about this new album is that it mostly piano based. My favorite songs on it are "Burn It Out," "Suicide is Murder" and "At the Frick Museum."</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>The Hold Steady</b> - <b><i>Open Door Policy</i></b></p><p>The Hold Steady is one of the better rock bands around these day. They are from Minneapolis but seems to have a New York City sound reminiscent of The Velvet Underground or The Feelies. This is their eighth album. Lead singer and rhythm guitarist Craig Finn writes all the songs in collaboration with the other members of the band. Their lyrics just take me away. Here are the opening lines of "Feelers":</p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span></span></span></p><blockquote><p> It was an early morning meet-up at the mansion up the mountain</p><p><span> </span>The Maestro still had glitter on his face</p><p><span> </span>They led us to the office and once my eyes adjusted</p><p><span> </span>I took a little look around the place</p><p><span> </span>On the mantle was a portrait of his father and the fortune</p><p><span> </span>He'd amassed from being ruthless but polite</p><p><span> </span>And a bottle with a model, a specific British clipper ship</p><p> On his desk there was a pistol and a pipe</p></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></p><p>This is an album full of stories and atmosphere. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>The Weather Station</b> - <b><i>Ignorance</i></b></p><p>The Weather Station is a Canadian folk rock band from Toronto. They are very jazzy and remind me a little of Steely Dan if they had a female singer. You may be familiar with the single "Robber" if you listen to a rock station rock station. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>The War on Drugs- <i>I Don’t Live Here Anymore</i></b></p><p>This Phillie band is so hot. Everything they do is so good, they are almost an automatic buy for me these days. The title track is probably my favorite song on the album. References to Dylan in any song goes far with me. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Robert Plant & Alison Krauss</b> - <i><b>Raise the Roof</b></i></p><p>This is their third album together and they seem to be getting better. It seems like an odd combination of the Led Zepplin lead singer with a blue grass musician, but they make it work. I am not sure how. "Can't Let Go" is my favorite song on this album. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>James McMurtry</b> - <b><i>The Horses and the Hounds</i></b></p><p>James is the son of novelist Larry McMurtry and I think of him as a leftist cowboy. His politics are always clear in his songs and they are usually biting and direct. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Foo Fighters</b> - <b><i>Medicine At Midnight</i></b></p><p>I think I might like the Foo Figthers more than Nirvana. I don't listen to much music that is this hard these days, but this one is quite good. I love the song, "Waiting on the War." </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Modest Mouse </b>- The Golden Casket</p><p>I've had two of their songs on my hard drive that I have been loving for years, "Missed the Boat" and "Float On." I've wanted more from this band for a while so I finally just bought their latest album in preparation of their live show. I like it, but don't love it. It is a bit uneven. "Back to the Middle" is a great song. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>White Horse </b>- <b><i>Modern Love</i></b></p><p>Another new discovery for me. This band is from Hamilton, Ontario. Canadian rockers just seem to have their act together. "Relic in a New Age" is a beautiful song. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Peter Frampton</b> - Peter Frampton Forgets The Words</p><p>Peter Frampton is not a great song writer but he is an amazing guitarist. So when this classic rocker puts out an instrumental covers album, my ears perk up. On this album he covers Roxy Music, Bowie, George Harrison, Sly Stone, Radio Head, Lenny Kravitz among others. My favorite is a song called "Maybe" originally by some country musicians I never heard of. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Ezra Furman</b> -<b><i> Sex Education: Songs from Season 3 - EP</i></b></p><p>Season 2 of the Netflix show "Sex Education" wasn't as good as season 1. One of the contributing factors is it didn't have an Ezra Furman soundtrack. Season 3, he is back and so is the show. It is too bad it is only an EP ... not enough Furman. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Iceage</b> - <b><i>Seek Shelter</i></b></p><p>This band reminds me of The Hold Steady, the Danish version. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Other Favorites:</b></p><p>Here are my favorite songs of the year that aren't on any of the albums I bought:</p><p>"There You Go Again" and "Take Me Back to Tulsa" by Asleep at the Wheel</p><p>"Time and Trouble" by Bob Weir, Jay Lane & Dave Schools</p><p>"Wake Up Romeo" by Caro Emerald</p><p>"Jazz On the Autobahn" by The Felice Brothers</p><p>"Miami Sun" by Iguana Death Cult</p><p>"Rock Paper Scissors" by Jah Sun & The Rising Tide</p><p>"Laurie Rolled Me a J" by John Craigie</p><p>"Medicine Man" by Keb' Mo' </p><p>"In There" by Liz Phair</p><p>"Squid Tattoo" by Sean Rowe</p><p>"Chaise Lounge" by Wet Leg</p><p>"Genuine Hesitation" by Matthew E. White</p><p><br /></p>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-61664940773697906912021-11-05T08:05:00.001-07:002021-11-05T09:53:16.999-07:00COVID Quarantine Diary<p><b> Friday, October 29th, 2021:</b> When we awoke there was a frost on the grass in front of my house. On our way to the school bus, I slipped and fell backward hitting my head on the ground. I was fine but I knew my neck muscles would be sore in the morning. </p><p><b>Saturday, October 30th: </b>I awoke with neck pain, as expected, and a headache. Later that day, I showed my wife that I did have a scrape on the back of my elbow from the fall. She said "that's not a scrape, that is a tick." She could see it better than I. She tried to get it out but couldn't so I went to Urgent Care in the town of Georgia, a few towns away. They removed the tick and gave me an antibiotic. While I was there I ask for a COVID test which I believe that is something we all should do if we are in a clinical setting. She gave a quick swab in each nostril. They told me they wouldn't call me unless you are positive. Before I went to bed I noticed a voice mail from the clinic. They wanted me to call them in the morning. They couldn't have the test results that fast could they? </p><p><b>Sunday, October 31st: </b>The headache continued and neck pain. I<b> </b>couldn't call the clinic until 9am, so I waited to call. While I was waiting, playing on my PC, I read an email from my doctor with the subject "COVID" and the text: "<span style="color: #26282a;">Your test was positive. How are you!" Then the clinic called with the same message. The worse part of this was telling the seven year old that his Halloween was cancelled. My amazing wife figured out a way for him to trick or treat over Zoom. He got dressed and she reached out to a ton of people that he got to show his costume without leaving the house. They choose treats for him, either gummies or red hots. It was pouring rain anyway. </span></p><p><span style="color: #26282a;">They left to get tested while I moved upstairs for the quarantine. I laid in bed the rest of the day watching movies and shows. My doctor suggested that I get tested again because he said it didn't sound right that no one in the house had any symptoms other than my headache which could be from the fall. I called the clinic and left a voice mail. </span></p><p><span style="color: #26282a;"><b>Monday, November 1st:</b> I called in sick and informed two people at work of my situations. I still had a headache and neck pain so I cashed out most of the day. I watched "Dune," caught up on my HBO shows and then continued to rewatch "The Sopranos." This gets old quickly. I went for a short hike on my land. I received a call from the VT Department of Health for contact tracing. I informed how remote (aka hermitlike) my life is and she wasn't too concerned about me spreading anything. My date of reentry should be the 10th. </span></p><p><span style="color: #26282a;"><b>Tuesday, November 2nd:</b> I had a scheduled holiday today, Election Day. I have one of those enlightened employers that gives us this day off regardless of whether it is an off year or not. I had a ton of appointments schedule today. One of them, ironically, the COVID booster which I may not need now. </span><span style="color: #26282a;">My back was really starting to hurt because there is no comfortable chair in my bedroom and the time in bed, at this point, was extensive. </span><span style="color: #26282a;">I decided today that I would go for a longer walk. No one was around at this time of day. I went off our land and hiked on my road and onto a town path, round trip three miles. It was nice</span><span style="color: #26282a;">. I saw no one on my hike other than two ladies in the distance. That marked the point where I turned around to avoid them. The exercise was exactly what I needed. Headache was almost gone at this point.</span></p><p><span style="color: #26282a;"><b>Wednesday, November 3rd:</b> This morning we had the first snow of the season. I returned to work, remotely of course. I couldn't justify not working. I had no headache or neck pain. To save my back, I moved my office chair with the lumbar support and my small desk into the bedroom. I jumped right back into things. It felt good to be back. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fOAcqbz6Fh4/YYL4DcQN3fI/AAAAAAAACV8/TeIFcfjSdW4DkMsl40arOCBNNHlmBDyigCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/Mark%2527s%2Bcovid%2Boffice.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fOAcqbz6Fh4/YYL4DcQN3fI/AAAAAAAACV8/TeIFcfjSdW4DkMsl40arOCBNNHlmBDyigCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Mark%2527s%2Bcovid%2Boffice.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="color: #26282a;">My doctor asked me if I was ever retested and I told him that they never called me back. So he rescheduled an appointment for me at Fannie Allen, a local hospital. I went in at 2pm and the snow was gone already. I didn't stop anywhere. The Dunkin' Donuts was calling my name but I resisted. This time I was swabbed only once in my left nostril but for a lot longer than the Halloween swabbing. My eyes were watering.</span><p></p><p><b>Thursday, November 4th:</b> Got up this morning and stepped in my workplace (about five feet away). Around 11am I received a notification that my test results were in. I log into the portal and saw that I was negative. I walk downstairs and hug the kid and the wife. </p><p>Whether the first test was wrong or they tested me at the end of an asymptomatic illness, I don't think we'll ever know. Regardless, if I was sick, I am enormously grateful for the vaccine because it probably would have killed me if I was not vaccinated. In general, my health is not great. All in all, the only inconvenience was the kid's Halloween was cancelled, he was angry with me and referred to me as the COVID monster for a few days and my wife had to wait on me, going up the stairs to deliver me food and coffee. For her I am forever grateful. </p><p><br /></p><p><span style="color: #26282a;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-75246440631645955702021-10-19T11:47:00.002-07:002021-10-26T06:54:34.069-07:00What MLB Needs To Do to Save Baseball<p>My Red Sox were in the American League Wild Card game on October 5th. For those of you who don't follow baseball, this is a win-or-go-home type of game. This is exciting for me as a fan, the big problem was: I didn't know how I was going to watch the game. It was on ESPN and I don't have ESPN on my very basic cable package. I subscribe to several streaming services and one of them is MLB-TV (Major League Baseball). Even though I've paid for the entire season, I don't get the Post Season games. Every October, I have to scramble to find a way to see the games. I could pay for YouTube TV or Sling, but then if the Sox get eliminated, I'm stuck paying for a service I don't want for at least a month. I have zero interest in watching anything else on these services. The challenge of how to watch the game is a newish problem among sports fans. I finally found a reasonable solution to this one game. I watched it on a relative's laptop who was borrowing a friend's YouTube TV account. </p><p>A lot has improved about the baseball fan experience since I was a kid but accessibility of the games is not one of then. Growing up in northern Rhode Island, I could watch all of the Red Sox games for free on channel 38 a local Boston channel, pre-cable. When I was down on the beach, during the Summer months, I could catch an occasional game on channel 6, a local Providence channel, on a miniature black and white set. We got better reception on cloudy days. It is so utterly frustrating that I could see more games, for free, under those circumstances than I can now. The entire season and playoffs were free back then and we only had a handful of stations. A curious kid couldn't help but fall in love with the game; one of the big reasons was that there was nothing else on. How can a kid, nowadays, stumble upon the game if even a hardcore fan like me, has go through high-tech gymnastics every October? MLB bleeding their hardcore fans dry while hiding the game behind a pay wall. </p><p>Most people become fans of a sport when they are young. For me it was the 1975 World Series with Fred Lynn, Jim Rice, Carlton Fisk and captain Carl Yastrzemski on the Boston Red Sox, going up against the Big Red Machine of Cincinnati with Johnny Bench and Pete Rose. A classic. Many a New Englander fell prey to this affliction that Fall, called Red Sox Fever. I'd sit on the floor in front of the television with my baseball cards and check their stats. I'd arrange the players in the shape of a diamond in front of me. You had to check the paper each day to see what time the game was on. We had nothing like a smart phones sending us reminders. In the internet age I renew my MLB subscription each Spring for $106.00 for the season. With this I can stream every out of market regular season game. This is great for my wife who is a Cubs fan. They are out of market, but because I live in New England, the Red Sox game are blacked out. MLB is trying to get as much money out me as they can and force me to spend more money to pay my in-market provider. This is how badly MLB treats their loyal fans. I call my cable provider every year to find out if I can subscribe to NESN only (who broadcast the Red Sox). I don't want Comedy Central or the Golf Channel etc. I just want Sox games. I get a big NO every year. I would have to pay about $80 more each month for a few hundred channels that I just don't want. </p><p>It seems that MLB is missing the boat here. If they want young people to be exposed to the sport, they need to get the broadcasts out there. Get it into more homes, not less. Most kids now, won't be exposed to this game if their parents aren't subscribers to MLB or has paid enough to have NESN, the YES network or Marquee sports in their cable package. Another big way kids get exposed to the sport is by attending local minor league games, but MLB is contracting a lot of those teams as well. Go figure. </p><p>Interest in baseball has waned in the past few decades giving way to faster more violent sports. The average age of the baseball viewer gets older each year because young people aren't being attracted to it. The average age of the current baseball fan is 53. If you didn't grow up watching games, you might find it boring or tedious. You might miss the sublties of the game-within-the-game that the hardcore fans love so much. Waiting four minutes for another pitch that gets fouled off is just not that appealing to a generation of kids brought up on the immediate gratification of iPads and X-Boxes. At least, that is what I hear. I am not so sure I believe it. No sport is appealing to everyone. Baseball is attractive to analytic types who love stats and the poetry of a crowd. I could go on about the beauty of the game, but today I talk about the problems of the professional game.</p><p>MLB seems to want to change the game to meets the needs of the young. This seems misguided. It has become a game of home runs, strike outs and walks and much less base stealing, bunting and the basic ground ball that goes up the middle. Advanced stats has a lot to blame here. If you know a batter hits to the left side of the field 70% of the time, you can shift your fielders to the left thus taking a hit away (aka less base runners and less action). Players only hit a pitch in play 15.8% of the time. Other times, it is fouled, a strike or a ball. This is down from 18.3% from ten years ago. </p><p>In the 2021, over a thousand pitches were thrown over 100 mph. Twenty years ago, only about 100 pitches were thrown that hard in a season. The pitching has gotten so good, that hitting has greatly decreased. So we have less balls in play and if it is in play, the hitters are less likely to get a hit because of the shift. This means, you got it, less action. </p><p>Some changes have been made to stop this, but not much. It is still the same game and has not had a huge affect. </p><p><b>Universal DH:</b> This is a long time coming. Currently, only the American League (AL) has the Designated Hitter. In the National League (NL), the pitcher actually bats. When I am in an NL park, I use this time to go take a pee, because there is a very good chance that nothing is going to happen. It is usually strike out and a bad bunt attempt. In 2021, pitchers batted .109 which is the lowest since 1916. This is horrendous. It is time to kiss this dinosaur goodbye. Like I say to my NL fan friends, "Who would you rather see hit? Jon Lester or David Ortiz?" This is a no brainer. Let the pitchers concentrate on pitching. For those few pitchers that are good hitters, let me come into the game as pinch hitters once in a while.</p><p><b>The Relief Pitcher problem:</b> The game really slows down in the mid to late innings. This is because teams have some many specialty pitchers now, they bring them in whenever they need them. Some pitchers would come in for one batter and then another and another etc. This means that play stops, the old pitcher walks away often when a manager visits the mound, the new one arrives and he gets warm throws. It is crazy slow. The <a href="https://www.mlb.com/glossary/rules/three-batter-minimum#:~:text=Definition,exceptions%20for%20injuries%20and%20illnesses." target="_blank">new batter minimum rule</a> says that the pitcher has to stay in the game for at least three batters or finish the half inning. It was instituted for the COVID season, 2020, and stayed around. The big impact this rule has had is that sometimes a pitcher just doesn't have his stuff and he stays in the game giving up bombs or walking the bases loaded. I like it but, please note, not when it is the Red Sox having this problem. I do think this rule has help speed up the game. </p><p><b>Extra Innings: </b>A big complaint from players and basically, everyone involved in putting the game on, is that extra inning games can go on forever. Even television stations hate it because the unpredictable length of the game screws up broadcast schedules. The new rule, introduced during the COVID year, puts a runner on second base at the start of the extra inning. Whoever made the last out in the previous inning, gets put on second base. I was prepared to hate this rule, but I ended up loving it. It has a sudden-death quality that I find appealing. The best action in baseball is when there is a runner in scoring position (aka on second or third). With someone on second immediately, it is tense right away. The problem with the rule is that I don't think it speeds up the game. I haven't seen the numbers yet, but I noticed that often both teams score a run in the 10th and it goes onto the 11th because they are still in a tie. </p><p><b>Seven inning double headers: </b>Since COVID, when two games are played in one day (aka a double header), those games are only seven innings. I hate this rule. It made sense when they first started playing during COVID, limiting people exposure to each other. Now that most of the players are vaccinated, we can get rid of this which I believe they are. MLB hasn't reduced the price of seven inning games which is bullshit. They owe refunds to a lot of fans. Baseball games are nine innings ... enough said. </p><p><b>Pitch clocks:</b> Currently, there is a pitch thrown in an MLB game every 24.9 seconds. A 15 second pitch clock would really speed things up. It is being used in some Single A leagues and college games now. The time would be increased if there is a runner on base. It is doubtful if MLB will ever implement this. There is some concern that decreasing the time between pitches, may increase injury due to less recovery time. </p><p><b>Restricting the shift:</b> Starting in 2022, infielders will have to start the game on the infield. Crazy huh! Sometimes they go further back onto the outfield grass. For some, this doesn't go far enough. I have heard some, like Joe Girardi, say that Short Stops and Third Basemen should have to start the inning on the left, Second and First Basemen on the right side of the field and the outfielders have to be in the outfield. So far I haven't heard any talk of this. </p><p>If you are confused as to what a shift is, this is a video on how the Houston Astros shift against Joey Gallo:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xMSbPsmd9Xg" width="320" youtube-src-id="xMSbPsmd9Xg"></iframe></div><br /><p>Since Gallo usually hits to the right, the Astros put most of their fielders on the right side of the field. It worked. </p><p><b>Cap on mound visits:</b> Each team has a limit of five <a href="https://www.mlb.com/glossary/rules/mound-visit" target="_blank">mound visits</a> during a nine inning game. This rule was introduced in 2016. In extra innings the teams get more. A counter is displayed in most parks, if not all, showing the number each team has used. Mound visits do slow down the game, but I don't think this rule has helped speed the game up at all. Only once have I seen a team run out of mound visits and it was the Yankees in the Wild Card game mentioned in the first paragraph. If they really want to speed up the game, eliminate mound visit altogether. The pitcher is on their own. That would improve hitting as well.</p><p><b>Automatic intentional walk</b>: When a player is intentionally walked, prior to 2017, a pitcher would lob four balls way outside the strike zone and the batter would take his base. Under the new rule, the manager just has to point to first base and the player is walked saving a little time. I have a few problems with this. One: it has happened in the past where the catcher has missed one of these lobs and the base runners advanced. Albeit, this is very rare, but very amusing when it does. Two: if you are in the stadium watching the game, you often don't notice this happens. It is confusing. A lot of people are saying "how did that runner got onto first?". They put this info on the jumbotron, but if you miss it, you are out of luck. If you are in old enjoyable park like Fenway, Wrigley, Camden Yards or Yankee stadium, some stranger around you may fill you in. If you are in one of the very loud stadiums like Tropicana Field, Guaranteed Rate Field or Minute Maid Park, you will just have to sit in ignorance because no one can hear each other because they are blasting Lady Ga Ga. No talking to strangers in those parks. </p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">My Wish List: </span></b></p><p>Perhaps I am old school, but I don't think the game needs to change at all. I think it is perfect. Young people, not all, will love the game if you expose them to it. Many won't. Don't ruin your product that fans love to reach a crowd that may never be into it, no matter what. It is not football, soccer or basketball.</p><p>Here are some changes I'd make if I were commissioner of baseball. Please note: none of them have to do with game play. </p><p>1) Every Sunday night, ESPN gets the Sunday night game. All other games are during the day. This sounds great except that for people like me, who don't have ESPN, I can't watch it. MLB-TV blacks out these games as well, out of market or not. Not only that, their coverage is awful. They spend most of the game pontificating about metrics, launch angles, past games and jerking each other's chain, often ignoring what is happening on the field. Everyone I know that watches these games, mutes it and listens to their local radio broadcast. If I were commissioner, I take the Sunday game away from them and give it to TBS or even Fox. </p><p>2) Singing is fun at a ball park. The American and Canadian national anthems, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," "Sweet Caroline" at Fenway, "Go Cubs Go" at Wrigley and "Thank God I'm Country Boy" at Camden Yards are all very much appropriate and some of them are a lot of fun. After the 911 Terrorist Attacks, most (if not all) ball parks introduced "God Bless America" into the rotation. Some parks still play it. Some only play it on weekends and holidays but it is still out there. Sometimes an announcement comes over the loud speaker telling to stand up and put your hand on your heart. One: This is not our national anthem so no I don't stand or put my hand on my heart. Two: I don't believe in God or god. Three: even if I did, I don't think god would bless any nation over any other. This is an awful, offensive and divisive song and I resent getting the stink-eye every time I refuse to stand up for it. It has not place in a ball park. Games are supposed to bring us together. Even the song's writer didn't like the song. Irving Berlin kept it in a draw for twenty years before he shared it. If I were commissioner: Can the song! </p><p>3) Mid season trades really bother me. In the middle of the year, the team that you root for becomes a very different team over night. If, in March, you bought a ticket for a September Cubs or Nationals game this year, the team that was on the field in September was nothing like the team that you bought the tickets for. Also, I wonder what advertisers think who have paid for the broadcast of a team of stars but then, mid-season a bunch of no-name players take the field. Even if you are on other end of these trade, receiving the stars not losing them, it is annoying. I would much rather the Red Sox develop their young first baseman, Bobby Dalbec, than trade for someone to replace him with Kyle Schwarber, even though I really love the ex-Cub. I was rooting for one team up until July and then ... boom ... mid-season it is a different team. Every team has a farm system to pull from. If I were commissioners, the trade deadline would be April 1st, no exception.</p><p>Today is October 19th. Game 4 of the ALCS is tonight and I cannot wait. My trial subscription to YouTube TV runs out tomorrow. If there is a Game 6 or 7, how am I going to watch them? I have no idea. The World Series is on Fox, a channel I have in my cable package. I can pay $50 or so for games 6 and 7. Oh no, I'm not. Crazy! </p>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-48423486694320835442021-09-08T09:15:00.006-07:002021-09-10T09:03:48.731-07:00I Am A Pacifist, This Is Why I Support the Draft<p>When I was 18 years of age, I registered for Selective Service (aka the draft board), because I had to. Every male citizen or legal immigrant aged 18 to 25 is required by law to do so (Selective Service Act of 1918). A lot of people don't. The percentages are different in each state which is because each states have <a href="https://centeronconscience.org/draft-registration-by-state/" target="_blank">different requirements</a>. New Hampshire has a 100% rate, but Washington DC is as low as 51%. Some states have requirements for attending state schools. Ohio charges student out of state tuition if you are not registered. I haven't found any such rules for my home state of Vermont which apparently has a low 73% as of 2018. I couldn't find any more recent numbers. </p><p>If you are going to apply for any Federal student loans, you need to register with SSS. That is why I did it when I turned 18, you have 30 days to do so. I had a little bag packed for a drop-in on my Canadienne relatives if it did happen if my draft number ever did come up, but I did register. At the time, I thought we were going into Nicaragua. I am grateful I was wrong. </p><p>I know plenty of people who don't even realize that their 18 year old boy is required to register. I asked a co-worker, years ago, if her son was going to register. She said she didn't realize he had to. I told her if he was going to apply for student loans he needed to. She said she was paying for his college. This, by definition, is called privilege. Poor people get drafted while the rich stay state-side. This is the way of the world. College deferment allowed the rich to avoid service in Viet Nam. When college deferment ended so did the war. America cannot handle seeing white suburbanites coming home in flag draped coffins. Poor kids, black and brown kids. No problem. Wealthy white kids ... This war has to end! </p><p><b>Why only men?</b> Only men are required to register mostly because we are a sexist society. War is thought of as a male thing so the men did the working and the fighting and women stayed home and took care of the kids. Now that things are different and women now participate in the workplace and combat, they should have to register for the draft as well, right? Congress says they are investigating it. We all know that no politician is really working on this. Meanwhile, some men find out when they are in their 30's or 40's that they cannot get a state or federal job because they never registered. </p><p><b>Tune out: </b> The reason I now, a pacifist in my 50's, support the draft is that it will prevent tune out and ultimately make wars shorter. We were at war in Afghanistan for 20 years. To most of us Americans, this had zero affect on us. America hasn't had anyone forced into the military via the draft since 1973. It is entirely a volunteer outfit. When we think of the war, we think<i> they signed up for this</i>. Indeed they do, but a lot of them is because they have no other options. Very few Americans followed the war and it was hard to do if you wanted to. You really had to look for it. It isn't like it was important like Britney and her receivership. </p><p>If ratings are down, media won't cover it. It is expensive and dangerous to put a journalist on the front line. But if your cousin, neighbor's kid or child were drafted, you would probably pay attention. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were huge mistakes that went on too long, but these were small wars. I am grateful to President Biden for finally ending it, regardless of how poorly it was done. Because it is so easy to tune out, a bullshit war like this can go on for 20 years. It also helps that only 2,200+ Americans died. We've gotten good at this war thing. This is small compared to the over 58,000 Americans who died in Viet Nam. Americans were only involved in that 20 year war for eight years, but they were deadly years. </p><p>I am not naive. I realize that war is sometimes necessary. The bullshit wars make it difficult for us to get into the ones that are necessary. World War I was a bullshit war. If it wasn't for the isolationism that the US experienced after WW I, two decades later Roosevelt would have been able to get into WW II a lot easier. A lot more lives would have been saved if we had. </p><p>As usual, I fear for the future. I have concerns for the big one that is coming. Oil will not be that important in the 21st century, but water ... yes, water will. Also, within the next ten years or so, I am guessing that it is going to get hot with China. Will we resist the draft because the memory of this bullshit wars are still fresh? Now that I am a dad, (yes, I adopted a seven year old boy), the fear is more real than ever. </p><p><br /></p>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-78661695567789803032021-06-27T08:12:00.001-07:002021-06-27T08:12:37.119-07:00Why this Liberal Won't Fly the Flag<p>Unless you know your neighbors very well, I would suggest you not make friends with them on Facebook. I've done this twice in the past few years and it has not been a good experience. One neighbor, whom I know her husband well but not her, was posting conspiracy theory memes about Hillary Clinton murdering Vince Foster and Jeffery Epstein. It is amazing how someone can believe that the most investigated person in American history can get away with murder. What a criminal mastermind Hillary must be! I was in a quandary, of course, I must response to this nonsense. But how? I don't want to argue with my neighbor. The other option was to ignore the postings, but they kept coming. I didn't want to see my neighbors this way. So I unfriended her. Denial is easier. Now I wonder what she thought about my posts and if she reads my blog. Whenever, they don't return my calls, I wonder, do they see me differently now. When it comes to neighbors, I just want to maintain the peace. </p><p>The other neighbor is a guy I thought I knew well. He is very talkative so you think I would know him better. His FB feed was pretty quiet but when he did post, he said some fairly awful things about liberals. With my "Bernie for Senate" sign greeting him each day, he had to know that he was talking about me. The last one I saw was a meme that said something like "liberals don't put flags in front of their houses because they hate America," something of that ilk. I could not find the exact meme but I probably shouldn't share that bullshit if I did. I unfriended him. Many problems are solved with a simple click.</p><p>I saw him yesterday and he had a Trump t-shirt on. This made sense to me. Has he been radicalized by Trump or was he always like this, simply being polite to my face. I'm not sure if it matters, but one good thing has come of this experience. It got me to think about the flag. I have never flown the American flag in front of my house. My dad used to put it out on Independence Day, Veteran's Day, Memorial Day and perhaps, Flag Day. He was a WWII vet so his relationship with the flag was complicated. Mine is not. I just don't like the flag, period. But why? </p><p>Mostly, it is an empty gesture without a lot of meaning to me. Like when a politician wears a flag lapel pin, it is more a gesture of posturing than it is of allegiance. So you love America? What does that mean, really? When you fly the flag, what are you saying that you love? Is it the government that you love? I think not. Is it the military that you love? That's a possibility. That is certainly a reason for me to not wave the flag. I do not love the military. That still does not seem right, though does it?</p><p>There is too much ambiguity in it all. Do I love America? I am not sure. Mostly because I don't know what that means really. I certainly don't hate America, but I hope for America to do better. I love somethings about being an American: the security, the opportunity and a certain level of liberty. Also, American history is fascinating but complicated and rife with problems. Racism, sexism and imperialism (I am sure a ton of other isms) is prevalent in our history. When I fly the flag, am I saying that I love that as well? When my father flew the flag, he wasn't. But he didn't think about such things, as far as I know. Life was less complicated back then, especially for us white guys. We didn't have to think of such things. This is called privilege. </p><p>I am not a fan of nationalism. This is what the waving of the flag means to me. A blind allegiance. Nationalism leads to xenophobia, isolationism and war. I like America, but I also like Canada, France, Ireland, the Czech Republic and Portugal (these are my favorite countries which I have visited). Their histories are complicated as well. I think of them as good friends, while I think of the Earth as my mother. I only have one mother. Here's where I beat this metaphor to death: when any one of my friends give my mother a swift kick, it may seem like I hate them, but I am only protecting my mother from one of my friends who has been a bad decision. I just want America to change, to meet its potential and stop beating up on Mother Earth.</p><p>Okay, perhaps my relationship with this piece of cloth is complicated after all. My relationship with the Trump t-shirted neighbor isn't what it used to be. We had him over once. We used to chat a lot. Now I say "hi" when I walk or run by. I don't want to talk to him anymore. I just want to maintain the peace. Facebook is supposed to bring people together, but in a lot of ways, it can push us apart. </p><p>I just wonder what he is going to think when I hang up my planet Earth flag. </p><p> <span style="font-size: 12.32px;">"</span></p>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-69170499712863257652021-06-08T12:04:00.000-07:002021-06-08T12:04:48.344-07:00Notes on Reading For Whom the Bell Tolls<p>I am at the point in my life that I have a bathroom book. Since I have committed myself to reading one classic of literature every year for the rest of my llife, these are perfect bathroom books. It means that I may take months to read some of these tomes, two or three pages at each "sitting." Think of me as a contemporary Leopold Bloom with a blog. <br /></p><p>Andy Warhol has a short experimental film called <i>Haircut </i>that I can't help think of when I read Hemmingway. The film is just of a haircut, other than the haircut nothing really happens, and it is quite boring. At some point towards the end of the film, someone sneezes. That simple sneeze seems momentous only because your sense of time and action has been altered by the film. It slows your brain down. This is what it is like reading Hemmingway. </p><p>If you ask someone what <u>For Whom The Bell Tolls</u> is about, they generally say it is about a mission to blow up a bridge during the Spanish Civil War. I take issue with this description. It is really more of a book about a bunch of characters talking about a mission to blow up a bridge. They mention blowing it up on the first page, one hundred pages into the six hundred page novel they are still talking about blowing up the bridge ... page 350 they are still talking about the dam bridge. Nothing much happens, a lot of dialogue, but when the action happens, it just seems momentous, like Warhol's sneeze. The last chapter, the bridge is blown. </p><p>I knew this going in. Slowing your brain down is particularly difficult in the internet age, my brain seems to be hardwired to expect stimulus every few seconds. When I was younger I read <u>The Old Man and the Sea</u>, an entire short novel about a guy trying to catch a fish. I also read the very short story, "A Clean Well Lighted Place," about an old guy in a bar being talked about by waiters. Reading something with so little plot may not have been a problem decades ago, before the rewiring, but it <i>is </i>now. Maintaining my attention span is a task which I have to put work into. I can only read it in spurts, a few pages at a time hence the bathroom reading. My mind wanders too easily for Hemingway. I started reading <u>For Whom The Bell Tolls</u> in late November 2020, I started blogging about it, this post, in December. I expected that I would not be finished until March. I write this sentence today and it is April 2021, I am on page 350. I finally finished the book in early June. </p><p>I don't want to give the impression that I am not enjoying it. I <i>am</i>. Partially. I am saved by the beauty of the writing, here is the opening paragraph of Chapter 9:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">They stood in the mouth of the cave and watched them. The bombers were high now in fast, ugly arrow-heads beating the sky apart with the noise of their motors. They <i>are </i>shaped like sharks, Robert Jordan thought, the wide-finned, sharp-nosed sharks of the Gulf Stream. But these, wide-finned in silver, roaring, the light mist of their propellers in the sun, these do not move like sharks. They move like no thing there has ever been. They move like mechanized doom. </p><p></p></blockquote><p>Regardless of how well it is written, it is as boring as hell. It is a chore reading it, not an enjoyment. I have a completion complex. Once I start a book, particularly a classic, I have a thing about finishing it, so finish it I did. When I read a classic like this I always wonder what a modern editor would do to it. I've always thought that the middle third of <u>Moby Dick</u> would be removed completely if it were published now. If I were editing <u>For Whom the Bell Tolls</u>, much of the flashbacks seem unnecessary. The bullfighting would be yanked from this book. Some love the bravado of it all, but I am bored stiff with it. I'd move the last chapter to the beginning, parts of it, and make a flashback of the time in the cave. </p><p>This is a book about death, not about a mission to bomb a bridge. The mission plot is mere background. It chronicles the four days before the mission, the characters are stuck in a cave about half the time. They know their death is near. Death lingers among them almost as if it were a character in their midst. </p><p>This is a book with a lot of sex and a lot of violence, but it is written conservatively, not salacious or gory. Here is an example of how sexuality is handled, the opening paragraph of Chapter 33:</p><p></p><blockquote>It was two o'clock in the morning when Pilar waked him. As her hand touched him he thought, at first, it was Maria and he rolled toward her and said, "Rabbit." Then the woman's big hand shook his shoulder and he was suddenly, completely and absolutely awake and his hand was around the butt of the pistol that lay alongside of his bare right leg and all of him was cocked as the pistol with its safety catch, slipped off. </blockquote><p></p><p></p><p>Sometimes artists can used the limitations imposed upon them and make great beauty with it, as if the limitation are just another color in their pallet. Hemmingway does this with self-censorship. </p><p>Because there is not a lot of action, the dialogue drives the plot forward and it is a challenge. It was written in English but the characters are supposed to be speaking peasant Spanish. This presents a challenge to a writer because Spanish, like French, has a polite form while English has no such thing. Hemmingway resolves this by using "thou" and "thee" in dialogue. Here is an example of this from Chapter 25:</p><p><span></span><span></span></p><blockquote><p><span> <span> "He should learn to control them," Pilar said. "Thou will die soon enough with us. There is no need to seek that with strangers. As for thy imagination. The gypsy has enough for all. What a novel he told me."</span></span></p><p><span><span><span> </span><span> "If thou hadst seen it thou wouldst not call it a novel," Primitivo said. </span></span></span></p></blockquote><p>All the dialogue reads like this. It makes for odd reading until you realize why it is written this way. </p><p>Also, the characters are very foul mouthed, but not explicitly. Hemmingway censored himself, because he knew the book would not have been read or published otherwise. Instead of swearing he used words like "expletive" or "unprintable," or used words that rhymed with the real word, like "muck" instead of "fuck." </p><p>Here is a line from Chapter 35, this is the protagonist Robert Jordan talking to himself: </p><p></p><blockquote>You're mucked, he told himself. You're mucked for good and higher than a kite.</blockquote><p></p><p>It is odd at first but you get used to it. </p><p>Robert Jordan, our protagonist, is a stoic, tough and honorable character fighting Franco's fascists on the side of an underdog. He is constantly in a state of self-questioning and doubt. In chapter 39, he refers to another character, Pablo, as being "on the road to Tarsus." I am familiar with the "road to Damascus" but I really had to think about and research "the road to Tarsus." The "road to Damascus" is a reference to Paul conversion while he walked to Damascus. He changed his name from Saul to Paul and became a disciple of Jesus. Paul's hometown was Tarsus. The "road to Tarsus," is returning to where you came from, a pulling back from your conversion. Jordan may be referring to Pablo, but he is also referring to himself. He wonders what he got himself into. He is in love with Maria, a woman he just met and knows they will not have a life together because their mission is doomed. His challenge is one we all have, do we go with our convictions or do we play it safe? In those four days, they live in the moment and things get tense between the characters. </p><p>Jordan is full of shame. He is ashamed of his father for killing himself. He believes he is "flying above" his father when he joins the cause of the war, which America has no stake in. He is an American Spanish language professor and a munitions expert. Somehow he is pulled into this conflict. It is a losing cause and ultimately, him being there is a suicidal act but his cause is just, unlike his father's. </p><p>I would not recommend this book to everyone, but it is hard to see what American literature would be without it, or American film as well. I see Robert Jordan in <i>Casablanca</i>'s Rick and even in <i>Rocky</i>. The film version just arrived in the mail, from my Netflix queue, and I am looking forward to seeing it. With Gary Cooper as Jordan and Ingrid Bergman as Maria, I am expecting to hate it. </p><p><br /></p>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-79416715289040663102021-03-04T11:45:00.006-08:002021-03-04T11:45:43.933-08:00Killing Garfield (the President, Not the Cat)<p>Americans tend to fetishize our presidents. We put them on a pedestal often representing entire eras, but they aren't that important. The American Presidency doesn't have that much power. Yet, they serve as a fulcrum to balance our understanding of history. I was at a physical therapy appointment today and the guy working my should asked me about the book I was reading. I told him it was about the assassination of President Garfield (<u>Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President</u> by Candice Mallard). He said, "hmm, I don't think I knew Garfield was assassinated." That PT does better than most of us, because most people don't even realize that we had a president named Garfield. This is unfortunate because he could have been a great one but because of an assassins bullet, he is relegated to mere footnotes of a very turbulent ear. </p><p>He was only president for five months, two of which he spent on his death bed. He was a reluctant candidate, he didn't want to be president, his party nominated him for the 1880 election and the Democratic party at the time was mostly ex-Confederates who had no chance of winning. This was a pivotal time for our nation. The reconstruction of the South, after the Civil War, was badly handled by the Federal Government. After Lincoln was assassinated we had Andrew Johnson who was impeached. After Johnson, we had Ulysses Grant who was a decent president for one term, but all the progress he made in his first term was erased by the drunken stupor of his second. After Grant, there was Rutherford B. Hayes who was the epitome of corruption. With the Confederates populating almost half of our Congress, getting any type of reform done was close to impossible. You think we are divided now. Check out this Electoral Map of the 1880 Presidential Election:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nySOuJbPIAw/YD_plx_ZE0I/AAAAAAAACRU/ATI4dXlFUDkZJ6yfp9q3xJxzt-kraEs8ACLcBGAsYHQ/s348/348px-ElectoralCollege1880.svg.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="202" data-original-width="348" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nySOuJbPIAw/YD_plx_ZE0I/AAAAAAAACRU/ATI4dXlFUDkZJ6yfp9q3xJxzt-kraEs8ACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/348px-ElectoralCollege1880.svg.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />Yeow! It makes our current situation look united. <p></p><p>Garfield was one of our log cabin presidents. He was fatherless at the age of two. He left his home in Ohio at age 16 to work on the Ohio and Erie canals. He was responsible for a mule who pulled ships through the waterways. He got sick less than a year later and returned home. While he was recovering, his mother convince him to return to school. His education was his salvation pulling him out of poverty. He attended college by doing handy man, carpenter and janitorial work. He ended up being an academic, a professor dealing in ancient languages, literature and mathematics. He wrote an original proof of the Pythagorean theorem once that surprised everyone when they discovered it was written by a politician. </p><p>It was as a college student where Garfield had a change of heart about politics and the slavery question. He grew up as a Disciples of Christ which was a religious sect that believed that you could not be a Christian if you were involved in politics. In college he attended two lectures where he heard two fiery lectures by abolitionists that blew his mind and changed his beliefs on the subject. College will do that to you. He was eventually made the President of Hiram College. When a member of the Ohio State Senate passed away, he was convince to run for his seat by the, then-liberal, Republican Party. By the time the Civil War starts, his state of mind is that the War is a holy crusade against a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_Power" target="_blank">Slave Power</a>. He becomes a Colonel in the 42nd Ohio Infantry and by the end of the war, a Brigadier General. Before the end of the war, he is elected to Congress and services as a Congressman, representing Ohio. He did so for 17 years. As a Congressman, he fought for equality of freed slaves. He was considered what they called at the time, a Radical Republican, which was the liberal branch of the party. </p><p>Like the party is now, the Republicans were split into two factions, the Radicals (also called the Half Breeds) and the Stalwarts. Stalwarts were mostly from the South who supported Grant to be president again. The 1880 Republican Convention was totally crazy. unlike anything we have seen in modern times. Primaries didn't exist back then, they actually nominated the candidates at the Conventions. In four days, they had 36 rounds of votes for 14 candidates. In the first round, Garfield had received one vote about of a possible 755. The top three were Grant, James Blaine and John Sherman (General Sherman's brother). During the first 33 rounds of voting, Garfield got one or two votes each time. It wasn't until the 34th, when future president, Benjamin Harrison, started promoting Garfield as a happy alternative to both sides of the party. He received 17 votes in the 34th round, 50 in the 35th and eventually 399 in the 36th (well above the 379 needed for the nomination). He may be the first president that had no interest in the job but he took one for the team (in more ways than one).</p><p>When Lincoln was assassinated only 16 years earlier, it was thought of as an anomaly, an eccentricity of life during wartime and nothing to be concerned about for future presidents. Presidents were not thought to need security so Garfield had none. When madman, Charles Guiteau shot Garfield while he was standing on a train platform in DC, he had his two young sons and two members of his Cabinet with him. No security! The bullet missed all major organs and if this happened today, he'd be up and about a few days later. We'd find the bullet with an x-ray and would remove it without any infection. The bullet didn't kill him but the infections did. While he was on the platform bleeding, a local doctor was sticking his finger in the wound looking for the bullet. Can you think of anything more unsanitary than a subway platform? He suffered for a couple of months and eventually died after every doctor and their ego chimed in on his health. The one doctor they should have listened to, Joseph Lister, was considered a quack by many. He is now considered the "father of modern surgery" and he tried to get doctors of that era to wash their hands and their instruments, but he was laughed at by the gentry. Fifteen years later, we'd have the x-ray and would understand asepsis. </p><p>You really have to wonder what this country would be like if this great man had survived. It wasn't until the early 20th century that we would have another strong president (Teddy Roosevelt). After Garfield we had a string of weak and ineffective executives. Much of the problems we have today stem from the Civil War era from racial inequality to unbridled/unhinged conspiracy theories. Northerners and Southerners still have wide fissures on how we see our country. When the Garfield died, the entire country mourned. Mourning his death was the first thing we did as a country together, reunited after the war. If he had time to use this popularity to actually reconstruct the South, we may not have had a KKK, Jim Crow or the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Migration_(African_American)" target="_blank">Great Migration</a>. Somewhere, perhaps, there is an alternative universe with Garfield is on Mt. Rushmore, the Proud Boys don't exist and Trump was never President. If so, I'd like to go there. </p><p> </p>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-45182020450830396962021-01-15T13:18:00.002-08:002021-01-16T07:01:45.671-08:00Picks of the Year: 2020<p>The year has been rough, but for me, <a href="https://manofwow.blogspot.com/2016/12/2016-year-that-sucked.html" target="_blank">2016</a> was worse for me personally. The pandemic didn't affect me much. I have been telecommuting since 2007, I am an introvert and I live in one of the states that has been handling this crisis very well. This is more of the same for me. The only big difference is that I have more people at home than usual. </p><p>I saw only one film in the theater this year and attended no concerts. Boredom is this year's hobgoblin. I cannot wait to get to a rock show. We should at least have some outdoor shows this summer, right? </p><p>I made up for it by watching a lot of television, did some reading and bought a lot of new music.</p><p><b>BEST ALBUMS:</b></p><div style="text-align: left;">I bought 16 albums in 2020 ... that is, all the song in MP3 format on a release by an artist. I am not talking about vinyl. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There are some surprises. All but five of these artists are fairly new to me. The Eels, Dan Bern, Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams and Bob Dylan are performers I have been listening to for years.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I like them all but if I had to put them in order best to worst, it would be as follows: </div><div style="text-align: left;"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Song For Our Daughter - Laura Marling</b>: I never heard of Marling until this year. I heard a few songs on Spotify and I was blown away. She has a Joni Mitchell-ish style of singing with some powerful lyrics. I bought her latest album and I wasn't disappointed. </li><li><b>The Night You Wrote That Song: The Songs of Mickey Newbury - Gretchen Peters:</b> This would have been #1 but there is one song that I just don't care for. The entire album is a group of songs by a late song writer that I have never heard of. I have been listening to Peters for a few years now. I buy a song here and there. This is the first album of hers I've ever bought. This is great stuff and only one song is "too country" for my taste. </li><li><b>Bonny Light Horsemen - Bonny Light Horsemen:</b> This band is the first folk supergroup that I ever heard of. It consists of Vermont's own Tony winner Anais Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson from The Fruitbats and The Shins and Josh Kaufman from The National and Hiss Golden Messenger. I hope they stay together and continue to make music together because I love their sound. </li><li><b>Sex Education Original Soundtrack</b> <b>- Ezra Furman</b>: One of my favorite shows of the year also a great soundtrack all by the same guy. Do I love the music because I loved the show or did I love the show because of the music? Probably a little bit of both. </li><li><b>LP5 - John Moreland: </b>This is my first Moreland album as well. This is a great bluesy folk singer that can write a great song: "you can't reach salvation from your rocking chair". He's got the Texas sound. </li><li><b>Kingdom in My Mind - The Wood Brothers: </b>Another new one for me. Chris Wood is famous for his other band Medeski Martin & Wood. He teamed with his brother Oliver and this is their eighth album together. It is folk rock, Americana, blues ... I don't know, I call it great. </li><li><b>Rough and Rowdy Ways - Bob Dylan: </b>Dylan is my guy. Whenever my wife says to me, "Did you hear?" I dread that it is about Dylan's demise. He's 79 years old and still putting out amazing stuff. This is his 39th album (if I counted correctly). Not all of them are great, but he's been on a roll lately. His past few albums have been great. </li><li><b>Good Souls Better Angels by Lucinda Williams: </b>I guess I went folk rock this year. She's been one of America's best song writer for decades. This is her 15th album and as good as any of them. </li><li><b>Reunions - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit:</b> I love this guy. I love his work ethic, his dedication to the music and to his fans. More importantly, I love his tunes. </li><li><b>Earth to Dora by The Eels: </b>I was a little disappointed in this album by one of my favorite bands. Their songs usually grab me immediately. It hasn't happened yet. </li><li><b>Ghosts of West Virgina by Steve Earle: </b>Lots of songs about coal mining. I like it, I don't love it though. </li><li><b>Rivalry by Dan Bern:</b> I discovered this guy a couple of decades ago at Falconridge Folk Festival in Up-State NY. He is not your typical folk musician, he is over six feet tall, wears fatigues and sometimes scares his audience. He is a painter and an ex-ball player and writes songs about Henry Miller, Marilyn Monroe, Monica Seles and going down on Madonna. He put out three CDs during the pandemic. The one I bought was about baseball. Not as witty as usually, but I am such a ball fan, it almost doesn't matter. </li><li><b>What Are We Frightened Of? - Alberta Cross: </b>I always thought this band was from Alberta, Canada. They're from East London. Nothing on this album has really grabbed me yet. This is their sixth album. They started off as a two piece: Petter Ericson Stakee (singer and guitarist) and Terry Wolfers (bass). But this is the second album after Wolfers left the band. It is really just a Stakee solo album. Maybe that is what is missing. I still enjoy the album but it is not as good as their other stuff. Stakee, give Wolfer a call. </li><li><b>Xoxo - Jayhawks: </b>Alt-country at its best, but I've heard better from them. </li><li><b>Holy Smokes Future Jokes - Blitzen Trapper: </b><b> </b>I've heard better from them as well. The songwriter just doesn't seem to be there on this album. </li><li><b>Friendly Figures - KULMA: </b>A little bit of rap, a bit of techno, a bit of jazz. I know nothing about them but I still enjoy it. </li></ol></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>BEST SONGS</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">I bought 310 songs in 2020 totalling 20 hours and 9 minutes. One of these years, I will have an entire day of new music. Please note, this is new stuff that came out this year. I bought plenty of other stuff from prior years (like Deer Tick, Kamasi Washington, Peter Gabriel, ELP and Gov't Mule). This blog post will talk about just the songs that came out in 2020. It has been great year for recorded music. In an era when musicians can stay home and create an album on their laptop, the pandemic is not going stop creatives from creating. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Below are all the favorites for the year. Some of my favorite musicians are here (Dylan, Ani, Bird, Bern, Earle and Isbell) and some musicians I never heard of (Coriky, David Alvin, Geek Music, David Dondero and Twisted Pine). Some of my favorites this year came from television shows with Ezra Furman's amazing soundtrack to<i> Sex Education </i>and perhaps, my favorite song of the year, "You're Dead" by Geek Music which is the theme song to <i>What We Do In the Shadows</i>. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I never heard of Shirley Collins. I don't know why. It bothers me. She's right up my alley, a raspy and jaded folk singer. I may be buying a lot of her stuff in the coming hear. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I bought some great cover songs this year, some of them I don't know the original version. My favorite cover this year is David Alvin's reinvention of "Highway 61 Revisited". It is a talking blues version with a driving steel guitar. It blows me away every time I hear it. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Keep the Damage to Myself - </i>Alberta Cross </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Hark! - </i>Andrew Bird</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Do or Die </i>- Ani DiFranco</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Hard Time Come Again No More</i> - Arlo Guthrie</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Murder Most Foul</i> - Bob Dylan</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>The Roving</i> - Bonny Light Horseman</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Clean Kill</i> - Coriky</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>The Legend of Yasiel Puig</i> - Dan Bern</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Highway 61 Revisited</i> - Dave Alvin</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Easy Chair</i> - David Dondero</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Thoughts and Prayers </i>- Drive-By-Truckers</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde</i> - Ezra Furman</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>You're Dead</i> - Geek Music</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>The Sailor</i> and <i>The Night You Wrote that Song</i> - Gretchen Peters</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Overseas </i>and <i>St. Peter's Autograph</i> - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Living in a Bubble</i> - Jayhawks</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Let Me Be Understood</i> and <i>Harder Dreams</i>- John Moreland</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>How Lucky</i> - Kurt Vile (with the late John Prine)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Look What They Did</i> and<i> Private Lives</i> - Low Cut Connie</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Big Black Train</i> - Lucinda Williams</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>My Brother, My Keeper</i> - Mandolin Orange</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Terminal One</i> - Rymden, Bugge Wessenltoft & Magnus Ostrom</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Sweet Greens and Blues</i> - Shirley Collins</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Black Lung </i>- Steve Earle</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Quarantine Blues</i> - Steve Poltz</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Papaya</i> - Twisted Pine</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Jitterbug Love</i>, <i>Don't Think About My Death</i> and <i>Little Bit Broken</i> - The Wood Brothers</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>BEST TELEVISION SHOWS</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">I used to look to HBO for great television, but this has changed. HBO has because pretentious and in love with themselves while the other networks are putting out some great stuff. Here is all the new shows I watched this year. I tried to put them in order. Please note that this does not include shows that weren't new to me. I'm still loving <i>The Crown</i>, it is just not new to me anymore. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><b>Sex Education</b> </i>(Netflix) - Love this. The son of a famous sex therapist turns therapist to his fellow classmates. Everything is great about this show, especially the soundtrack. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i>Ramy</i> </b>(Hulu) - A friend of my wife turned us onto to this. It is a very funny, poignant and educational. It is about a Muslim single guy trying to find a wife. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i>What We Do in the Shadow</i>s</b> (FX via Hulu) - Mockumentary about vampires. Hysterical. Need I say more?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i>Ted Lasso</i> </b>(AppleTV) - This is more heart warming than funny. Ted is an upbeat American football coach who gets hired a soccer coach in the England premiere league. It is a funny <i>Friday Night Lights</i> where they say "Wanker" a lot. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i>Normal People</i></b> (BBC3 via Hulu) - I almost forgot about this one. I published and went back to add it. It was very good and shouldn't be missed. This is about two Irish students growing up together and having an on-again-off-again romance. The writing and acting are top notch. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><b>Derry Girls</b></i> (Channel 4 via Netflix) - I have to rewatch this with the subtitles on. The accent is a bit much but it is about teenage girls in Northern Ireland during "the troubles." Another one of those shows that is funny but also informative. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><b>Pen15</b></i> (Hulu) - This is cringe comedy. Two adult comedians, play themselves when they were teenage girl losers. It is sometimes hard to watch because you feel bad for them. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><b>Devs</b></i> (FX via Hulu) - This is a sci-fi thriller about quantum computing created by the same guy we created the movies <i>28 Days Later</i> and <i>Ex Machina</i>. I just loved this. It has surprises around every corner. This is a real sci fi. Not a bull shit action film pretending to be sci-fi. This is a mini-series so I guess I'm done with it but I don't want to be. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><b>The Flight Attendant</b></i> (HBO) - This one surprised me. A flight attendant wakes up in bed with a one-night stand stabbed to death. Very well done. I wouldn't have guessed it by the trailer. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><b>The Boys </b></i>(Amazon) - This is a super hero show outside the DC and Marvel universes. It is very good and profound at times. I had never heard of this series going into it. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><b>The Morning Show</b></i> (AppleTV) - This has so many big stars that I expected it to be crap, but it was quite good with Steve Carell playing the bad guy.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i>Tehran </i></b>(Apple TV) - This is another surprise that I just found by clicking away. It is political intrigue between Iran and Israel with lots of spies. You like the characters but you hate the system they are intertwined in. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i>Roadkill </i></b>(BBC One via PBS) - This is a political intrigue drama starring Hugh Laurie which I really enjoyed but it only has four episodes. Come on BBC. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><b>Perry Mason </b></i>(HBO) - This is not your father's <i>Perry Mason</i> (TV show from the 50's) but based on the original source material, the novels by Erle Stanley Gardner. Mason is not yet a defense attorney but an investigator. I almost didn't finish this, it took a while for me to get into it but it ended up being very good in the end. It is very gritty and it came close to being cliche, but it never crossed into it. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Waco </b>(Netflix) - I don't know how accurate this was about the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in 1993, but it is thoroughly entertaining. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><div><i><b>Red Oaks</b></i> (Amazon) - This is very light but enjoyable. It is about a country club in New Jersey 1980's. Think of it as a less silly <i>Caddyshack</i>. </div><div><b><i>Defending Jacob</i></b> (Apple TV) - A kid is murdered in Newton, MA and the assistant DA's son is the suspect. Did he do it? Honestly, I can't remember if he did or not. </div><div><b><i>The Umbrella Academy</i></b> (Netflix) - More people with super powers told in a creative way. As usual, this show suffers from the Netflix second series syndrome ... but not quite as bad as other Netflix series. First season, quite good. Second season, not quite so good. Maybe they've learned their lesson because it isn't as pronounced as some of their other shows. </div><div><b><i>F is for Family</i></b> (Netflix) - I still watch this occasionally. I think it is implied that F is for Fucked up Family. Regardless, it reminds me too much of my fucked up childhood. I love Bill Burr's humor, but it can be a bit depressing at times. Get out of my memories Bill Burr!</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i>The Outsider</i></b> (HBO) - Another Stephen King horror show. It is fun, it is gross. Not a lot else going on. I just expect more from HBO. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i>The Undoing</i></b> (HBO) - I would watch Nicole Kidman read the phonebook. Hugh Grant is her murderous husband. I liked this until the last episode. What a disappointment. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i>Star Trek: Picard</i></b> (CBS: Access) - But this is the year's biggest disappointment. One of my favorite Star Trek characters gets his own show. When disc one arrived in the mail, I reminded my wife to make time to watch it tonight. Mid-way through episode two - "Do you know what's going on?" You shouldn't have to look up a plot on Wikipedia to understand what is happening. I am well versed in Trek lore. So far, I am not impressed. I also predicted the ending at around episode six. I hope season two is better. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i>Queen's Gambit</i></b> (Netflix) - I loved this show until she grew up and the show turned into sex and drugs and checkmate. I stopped watching. I am reading the book now. Maybe I'll watch the rest of the show later. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><b>Reckoning</b></i> (Netflix) - I had to look this up because I couldn't remember what it was about.It was that unmemorable. Oh ya, that serial killer show. That's all you really need to know. That's all I remember. Nothing new here. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i>Killing Eve </i></b>(BBC America via Hulu) - This is another disappointment. It is okay but I stopped after season one. Maybe I'll return to it again, but it is certainly not as great as people claim.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i>Away </i></b>(Netflix) - The personal lives of astronauts on a trip to Mars ... *yawn* Stopped watching.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><b>Castle Rock</b></i> (Hulu) - Another Stephen King series ... yada yada yada. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i>Industry </i></b>(HBO) - Hateful people doing things I don't understand on computer screens. Stopped watching. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><b>Lovecraft Country</b></i> (HBO) - Lovecraft was a racist!? Oh ya, I guess he was. There is some interest stuff in this show but mostly it is over-produced and poorly written. Come on HBO, you can do better. Stopped watching. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><b>Next </b></i>(Fox via Hulu) - Another AI is taking over the world. I wish an AI would take over the writing of this show. Stopped watching. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i>Schitt's Creek</i></b> (Netflix) - I'm not sure why so many people likes this show. It is basically <i>Green Acres</i> without the laughs and likeable people. They are annoying and pretentious. Worst of all, they aren't funny. I would <span> </span>have stopped watching this long before I did (like the second episode), but my wife wanted to keep giving it another try. Eventually, she gave up and I was grateful. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>BOOKS:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">I've committed to reading at least one classic a year for the rest of my life. This year's was a small one, <u>The Invisible Man</u> by H.G. Wells, which I enjoyed. This is the third of his novels that I've read and my second favorite. I've read <u>The World of the Worlds</u> and <u>The Time Machine</u> with the latter being my favorite of his.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I only read eight books this year so it should be easy enough to rate them in order of preference:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><u>Circe</u> by Madeline Miller</div><div style="text-align: left;"><u>Girl at War</u> by Sara Novic </div><div style="text-align: left;"><u>The Invisible Man</u> by H.G. Wells</div><div style="text-align: left;"><u>The Lake House</u> by Kate Morton</div><div style="text-align: left;"><u>Summer Hours at the Robbers Library</u> by Sue Halpern (Vermont writer) </div><div style="text-align: left;"><u>The Buried Giant</u> by Kazuo Ishiguro </div><div style="text-align: left;"><u>Open Season</u> by Archer Mayor (Vermont writer)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><u>The Ocean at the End of the Lane</u> by Neil Gaiman</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The first two books I really loved. <u>Circe</u> is a retelling of Circe's story from Homer's <u>Odyssey</u>. I generally don't like fantasy but this was so well written and since it was based in a story I already knew, it made it more palatable. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><u>Girl at War</u> is about a war orphan from Yugoslavian civil war and her transition into being an American. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><u>The Lake House</u> was good, but I've never been a huge mystery fan and everything wrapped up a bit too nicely in the end. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I have determined that I am not a Neil Gaiman fan. This is the second book by him that I've read and hated. So be it. No big deal. Maybe I'll like his graphic novels. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">2021's classic is For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway. I'm about a third though now. Wish me luck. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span></span></p>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2390428538079200279.post-7938054042443141472020-12-02T08:52:00.001-08:002020-12-02T08:52:43.119-08:00Electoral College: History, Pros, Cons and Alternatives<p>After the American Revolution was over, the revolutionaries had a most difficult task. What now? Many of the 13 colonies did not see the advantage of joining a new nation. James Madison's idea of elections being based on popular vote scared some of the smaller states. Some thought joining an old world nation, like Spain, was more advantageous. To keep the small states happy and within the union, a bicameral legislature (with two houses) was proposed during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, much like England's the House of Commons and House of Lords. This came to be known as the Great Compromise of 1787. While the House of Representatives would be based on population giving large states like Virginia and Massachusetts more power, the states would be equally represented in the Senate. Delaware, who had recently became independent of Pennsylvania, jumped at this and signed the Constitution becoming the first state to ratify it. </p><p>Once the big stuff was over, most of the convention attendees returned home. Those who were from far away had a long trip ahead of them. George Washington went fishing. The rest of the constitution, much of the stuff that we complain about was created by the smaller committee called the Committee of Unfinished Parts which only had 11 representatives from different states). </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Nicholas Gilman of New Hampshire </li><li>Rufus King of Massachusetts</li><li>Roger Sherman of Connecticut</li><li>Jonathan Brearly of New Jersey (Chairman)</li><li>Gouvernuer Morris of Pennsylvania</li><li>John Dickinson of Delaware</li><li>Daniel Carroll of Maryland </li><li>James Madison, Jr. of Virginia</li><li>Hugh Williamson of North Carolina</li><li>Pierce Butler of South Carolina</li><li>Abraham Baldwin of Georgia.</li></ul><p></p><p>This is where they came up with the one person executive, the president's term of office, rules for treason and impeachment and of course, the electoral college. The electoral college was considered, at the time, innovative because it was a temporary body that met for only one reason. It was believed to be less corruptible than if the task of selecting the leader of the Executive Branch fell up Congress to do. </p><p>When we vote for President, we are not voting for him/her directly but for electors who then vote for President for us. There are currently 538 electors (since 1964, 535 from the states and 3 from DC.) Each state gets one elector for each of their Senators and one for each of their Representatives. So the larger states get more but not proportionally more. Wyoming gets three while California gets 55. Wyoming is the least populated state with a half million people. For every 193,000 people they get an elector. California is our largest state with about 39.5 million people and one elector roughly every 718,000 people. Whatever candidate that gets a state's popular vote, gets all of that state's electors. Trump could get 10 million votes in California but if 10,000,001 voters chose Biden, all of the electors go to Biden. Winner takes all. You can understand why voters feel disenfranchised and don't show up.</p><p>Maine and Nebraska are the only two states that are not winner take all. They award only two electors to the state popular vote winner (for the Senators). The rest of the electors are given to the popular vote of each Congressional district. It is messy. Everything that was ever created via compromise is. Originally, most states were more like these two. Virginia was the first state to change to winner take all in 1808, the largest state at the time, in order to get their man, Thomas Jefferson, elected. </p><p>A total of five Presidential candidates won the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College. The two most recent occurring in the 2016 and 2000. Two other presidents—Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876 and Benjamin Harrison in 1888—became president without winning the popular vote. If Grover Cleveland had won in 1888, he would have been president for three terms, but we have no way of knowing if he would have run in 1892, if he had won in 1888. In the 1824 election between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, Jackson won the popular vote but neither won a majority of Electoral votes. Adams secured the presidency only after the election was decided by a vote in the House of Representatives, a procedure provided for in the Constitution. Arguably, none of these presidents were very good. Both George W. Bush and Donald Trump may go down as the two worst presidents we ever had. B. Harrison, Hayes and Q. Adams have never cracked the top ten on anyone's list. </p><p>This is clearly a problem. The most important decision any president makes in their time of office is their selection of judges, specifically the Supreme Court. We currently have nine judges, more than half of whom were appointed by presidents who didn't get the popular vote. Roberts and Alito were appointed by W. Bush. Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett were appointed by Trump. These judges make very important decisions about our everyday life (regarding our healthcare, our privacy, our bodies, our elections etc.) and yet, most Americans voted against them. This is hardly democratic. Hillary Clinton won in 2016 by over 2 million votes and yet Trump ended up with three Supreme Court appointments. That is just gross. </p><p>Doing away with the electoral college altogether would require an amendment. We have come close. The Bayh-Celler amendment passed in the House in 1968 but died in the Senate. It even had support by then president Nixon. Again, the senators from states with smaller populations opposed it. If passed, we would be electing our Presidents via popular vote. This also has some drawbacks. Campaigning in rural areas would be ignored completely and they would be limited to the large metropolitan areas. Why would candidates spend time and money in areas that had few votes? Perhaps this isn't such a bad thing, more people getting more attention. One of the advantages of the Electoral College is that the minority isn't ignored, but one could say that the minority (in this case, rural voters) gets too much power. </p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><p>Some creative ideas have come up. Since 2007, fifteen states and DC have passed the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC). This an association of states declaring that during a Presidential election, all of their electoral votes will be given to the winner of the National popular vote. It doesn't take effect until it accounts for 270 votes so it wasn't applied in 2016 or 2020. Currently, it accounts for only 196 (MD, CA, VT, RI, CT, DE, CO, IL, NJ, HI, WA, OR, MA, NY, DE, DC) needing 74 more. There are bills in every state to pass this. Once it is passed, it will effectively make the Electoral College defunct. The problem with it, is that it is currently only Democratic leaning states that have signed on. It would have had no effect in 2016 with its current list of states. In 2000 it would have flipped Colorado making Gore the President. We might still have a couple of magnificent towers in Manhattan if this happened. They need some battleground and Republican states to pass it for it to be effective but they will never have enough votes. Republicans won't backed a bill that is clearly against their interest. </p><p>The electoral college doesn't need to be completely trashed. Its original intent was a good one. The rights of the minority is important. We have millions of citizens, like myself, that live in rural areas. Our needs need to be considered in the executive branch. We just need to jiggle some numbers around perhaps. The states are disproportionately larger than each other than at our founding. In the 1790 census, Virginia (the largest state) had 111,000 people while Delaware had 12,000, roughly. This is a little over nine times the size. Currently, California is 79 times the size of Wyoming. California really needs to be split up into four or five different states and split Texas into two or three. While we are at it, we can merge the Wyoming into Idaho and merge the two Dakotas into one. Californians would probably love this. Not so much the Wyomingites. This is not going to happen. I can't imagine the Republicans agreeing to loosing the Senators in Wyoming and giving the Democrats a few more in California, but it is fun to think about. </p><p>What seems more practical is removing the two electors assigned to the states for their Senators. Very small states getting three electors instead of just one is throwing the math all off. All states would lose two. This would bring CA down to 53 electoral reps and give them a vote per every 745,000 people. Not a big change for them. The big change would be that Wyoming would get only one vote for their entire state of 500,000 people. That is a lot more equal than the 193,00 they currently have. The point here is that change is hard and getting an amendment passed is almost impossible. The last one that passed (the 27th in 1992) took over 200 years to do so. A little change might be easier to pass.</p><p>The problem with this one is that Clinton still would have lost in 2016 under this new count. Clinton lost to Trump because he won 30 states and she only won 20. He had 306 electoral votes and she only had 232 even though more than 2 million people voted for her. If you removed the Senate electoral votes from this count, he would lose 60 votes and she 40. She'd still have less votes. </p><p>Even if you went with the Maine/Nebraska model and vote were divvied up via Congressional District, Trump would be victorious. He won 232 districts while she won 203. He just won by smaller margins and in smaller districts. In order for Clinton to have had an electoral college victory in 2016, we'd have to use both methods taking away the Senatorial electors and the Maine/Nebraska model. If you mess with the Electoral College that much, you might as well just go with a popular vote. </p><p><br /></p>manofwowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12563916572275717261noreply@blogger.com0