DirtPriest's 50-Another Year in the Trenches v2

Here's a new start, from my old thread over here.
Total books read = 43

35. Searching for the Sound: My Life with the Grateful Dead by Phil Lesh
I've read a few books about the Grateful Dead over the years, including the huge timeline based Grateful Dead: The Illustrated Trip, and this is by far the most fun to read of the bunch, as well as the only book written by a band member. There aren't any earth shattering revelations to be had, but the writing style transfers the reader to an imaginary realm where you can sit back and listen to a master musician tell a story. It is very narrative and informal. Phil goes in to some detail about how classical music shaped his thinking about how music should sound, taking cues more from Bach's counterpoint than Jack Bruce, McCartney, John Entwistle or any other rock band bassist. I've had a few mind benders myself listening to the classics, notably a program on Mighty Handful which was extremely emotional, and he is totally right. Phil goes on to relate his history with the band in a chain of stories that carries you quickly through thirty years of great music, the obvious drug use and it's permutations over the decades, and personal relations with the other band members. Not to mention one of the best April Fool's gags ever. Phil had a dude in a Barney the Dinosaur suit sneak on to the stage for the second set, and Jerry didn't notice until after they started playing. Phil was behind his stack of amps and speakers playing, while Barney was dancing around with a backup bass strapped on. Jerry had a moment of total disbelief, which was a pretty rare thing for Captain Trips, after all the crazy hallucinations that he had played through over the years. If you are in to the band, you can't go wrong with Phil's book. If not, it's still a funny story about a Long Strange Trip, well worth reading anyways.



Just to save someone from asking, the Mighty Handful were an incredible group of five masters, self taught musicians who met in St. Petersburg in the late 1850's or so. Their goal was to bring traditional Russian music into the Romantic Era more famous for Brahms, Liszt, Schubert and whatnot. They were Balakirev, Mussorgsky, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov and Cesar Cui. They are well worth looking for at your library, Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition' is probably my favorite work in the entire Classical repertoire.

Nice review!
--BJ

Why thanks. I'm back to the Greeks so it will be a bit before the next one. Putting out a few tales along the way will be in order.

OK, I heard some sort of oblique reference on the news to the big 12 breaking up and I can't find anything about it on the internet. Is this a joke?
--BJ

It had better be a joke. There's probably a reason you couldn't confirm it.

These late night Tigers at Anaheim games are eating in to my reading time. Their first 'normal' game-time at 7 PM isn't until next week, game #21. Weird.

Hey, I did a google search about the Big 12 (search 'Big 12 breakup' if you want to read the articles that I found), and there is some rumored truth to it, apparently. The issues seem to revolve around the old Big 8 teams don't like being lumped in with the SWC teams, Texas wanting and planning to negotiate their own private TV deal (hence the new media facilities at DKR), mutual interest between Missouri and the Big Ten as well as Colorado and the PAC 10, and a few other tussles. Try that google search and see what you think. For the record, several of Colorado's best players have been from California. Eric 'Sleeping With' Bieniemy was for sure. Most great teams have a guy or two from CA, but when the Buffaloes were dominant, I recall there being several.

I don't understand. They just want 8 teams again? But they won't have 8 if they lose Missouri and Colorado. I did not hear of Texas getting a private TV deal either. The Big 12 North I guess doesn't like that the Big 12 South dominates the conference, but that also includes OU and OSU, and OU seems to me has the most Big 12 championships. I liked the SWC, but it is gone. Oh, well. Off to google.
--BJ

It sounds like the big issue was other conferences poaching the Big 12 teams, as opposed to an internal breakup.

I feel a rant coming on after reading the first article. I am trying to restrain myself. Already deleted several lines.
--BJ

Go ahead and vent it. It's a community service I provide for friends.

Let's just say that a Longhorn living in Tulsa has a hard time. I took my older daughter to visit OU when she was looking at colleges, and they made so many rude remarks about UT that she would not even apply. Then the next kid would not even visit. That whole article was all about how the entire Big 8 hates UT. On the bright side, more and more Longhorn fans are moving here. That definitely helps.

I mentioned on my thread that the CMU quarterback LeFevour? went to the Bears, I think. Cutler could be in trouble. And Denver took 2 quarterbacks. What is up with that? I hope you are right that Bradford can handle lack of Oline. That was what he needed. He sure is a nice guy.
--BJ

The SciFi -- Group Reads poll is up and Canticle for Leibowitz is winning with 100% of the vote! (2 votes.)
--BJ

What the heck is this thing? It's from Digimon or some other anime cartoon from about ten years ago. It was rescued from a bin full of other such silly creatures, liberated from the Island of Misfit Toys, as it were. I have used it as a mojo while playing Magic for at least ten years now and would like to identify it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I should be getting more into The Classical Greeks as the week progresses, the Tigers are finally done with their long west coast trip. Back to reasonable 7PM evening games and a few hours of late night reading instead of 10PM games and begging my little nephew for a nap the next morning while Sesame Street is on. Actually, he's really been enjoying the CBC Canadian kids shows, they do some stuff in French and have a much wider variety of shows than PBS. DirtGirl is a gardening show, plants and bugs, the seasons, that sort of thing. There's also a fake news show where kids call in with 'Breaking News' and they send a camera crew out to a chicken farm in Manitoba to watch a young girl get a new Banty hen that she's all exited about. I really like it, myself

My daughter (younger one) will be home in a week and a half, and I will ask her if she knows what it is.

How nice to have both sets of shows to choose from. I remember that when my younger girl was born, my older one quit having naps. No fun!
--BJ

Looks like A Canticle for Leibowitz is hanging on by a razor thin margin. I hope it wins, because there have been lots of positive comments on that one.

On ESPN the other day I saw that Missouri is going to the Big 10 and Colorado to the PAC 10. Apparently the Big 10 Network is a big draw. I had been hoping for a Big 12 Network. So will the Big 10 change its name to the Big 12? How could it keep Big 10 with 12 teams? Don't know what will happen to the rest of the Big 12, but I hear it will be gone by 2015. I really don't like change.

Are you going to read Dune this summer? I could do with a reread of it. I read it 25 years ago, and it was pretty complicated for me. I would like to revisit it.
--BJ

Sorry for all these posts. The big drawback to ending the Big 12 to me is seeing the UT games on the major network when living in OK. We already have some bizarre problems seeing the Spurs here even though we have the Sports Pack and get the channel. It gets blacked out for out of state. I had thought that blackouts were only for lack of ticket sales in the local market. OK, I will stop all these posts now.
--BJ

The colleges switching conferences is odd. And a shame. Is the PAC 10 adding Fresno State too?. There has to be more to this than those two teams moving out. The Big Ten Network is pretty cool. Where else can you watch Michigan vs. Illinois baseball or the conference gymnastics championship? Every conference should have a regional network like that to augment their national network exposure. Sometimes you just want to see that Michigan State Minnesota game (or Texas Tech vs. Baylor) that is a night game which ESPN doesn't carry. And basketball, wrestling and softball to boot. Go ahead and post away, there's plenty of room.

I would really like to finally read Canticle, one of those classics that I've never gotten to. Same with Dune. I just picked up nice used copies of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune to go with it. I should get to it soon, my friend Scott seems to think he can strip me of my Commodore rank in the Nerd Fleet. I think that's a mighty bold move for a paltry Bosun. A regular mutiny. Maybe I'll read it this week and then keelhaul him, then after that he can swab the deck while wearing wet pants and boots. Chafing and blisters, matey! Don't mess with the Commodore. He does have a point, though. It is the scifi equivalent to Tolkien.

As to Tolkien, I have been patiently waiting for this professor at Washington College in Maryland to finish posting his lectures on the works of Tolkien (link here, check it out if you are interested in a podcast lecture series to listen to). The semester ended this week and it should be all posted soon. There is an undergrad class on the main works of JRRT and a graduate level study of The Hobbit, as well as a smattering of other bonus lectures and discussions. I'd like to get in to that this summer, but with this Dune thing hanging over my head, things are going to be busy. Plus, I'm still doing the Greek and Roman era study as well, which I would like to finish. I still have a few solid months of that, The Landmark Thucydides, Grant's History of Rome and The Climax of Rome, The Decline and Fall (of course), Plutarch's Lives and an involved looking book on the historical impact of the Theseus myths. Plus baseball, disc golf, babysitting with a new one on the way soon, and filing this huge pile of e-books that I downloaded, to the tune of 4 gigabytes. It's too much to stuff into an entire summer.

Sounds like you don't have enough to do this summer. :)
--BJ

As an added boot to my limited spare time, the Detroit Tigers are outstanding this year. Austin Jackson will win the Rookie of the Year award, Miguel Cabrera should win the MVP (unless Awesome Jackson takes that too). Yeoman work from the bullpen, great hitting up and down the lineup, exemplary defense at every position (left field is dicey but decent), My only complaint is the managing but even that has come around with much more stealing and hit and run attempts in the last week. The only thing we haven't gotten is good starts from our top two pitchers, Verlander and Porcello. Verlander has had a rough April the last few years and was nearly untouchable the rest of the season, Porcello is 21. Now it's not April anymore. I think he really hates this ridiculous 'April In The D' promo that Fox Sports forces on their viewers. It is a big sports month in Detroit with the Red Wings and, usually, the Pistons starting their playoffs, as well as the Tigers starting up.

The Tigers play the hated Yankees next week, May 10-13, and at least one of the games should be on ESPN, either Monday or Wednesday night, maybe both. Any sports fan owes it to themselves to check out an impressive Tigers team that gets very little national coverage.

Looks like Canticle for Liebowitz is the winner for the SciFi group read. I plan on starting it tonight after I wrap up The Classical Greeks. One chapter and a few appendices to go.

I'm pretty sad right now. The long-time Tigers announcer, and the voice of summer in Michigan, Ernie Harwell died today. He was 91. Inoperable cancerous tumors are a bitch. This is like losing an old uncle who has been sick for a while and finally just let go. Best wishes and love to his wife Lulu.

He had a huge impact on my life, we spent many hundreds of evenings together with the Tigers via the magical medium of AM radio. He got started in baseball by submitting a weekly report on the minor League Atlanta Crackers to the Sporting News as a young teenager in the early 1930's, and was hired to be the regular correspondent. He was also a bat-boy for the team on occasion. In a literary note, Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With The Wind, was a customer on his boyhood paper route. After a stint in the Marine Corps, where he wrote for Stars and Stripes during WWII, he returned to the local radio station to broadcast games and do sports news and interviews for the station, including several with Ty Cobb, as well as Ted Williams and Jack Dempsey. He even did announcing of The Masters golf tournament for CBS radio. In 1948 he was traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers for catcher Cliff Dapper. Branch Rickey needed an announcer that badly and gave up a player to make up for Mr. Harwell breaking his contract. After a few years he moved on to the New York Giants and was replaced by a young Vin Scully, who still does Dodger games. Mr. Scully is starting his sixty-first season with the team, and, I believe, the last Brooklyn Dodger 'in uniform'. Harwell came to Detroit in 1960 after a stint with the Baltimore Orioles and became the legendary voice that ebbed and flowed, crackled and drawled, throughout Michigan and much of the Upper Midwest for well over forty years. There was a massive outcry when he was released in 1991, the team and WJR each blaming the other in what was an ugly and much despised move. The owner at the time (Tom Monaghan of Domino's Pizza fame) was more or less shamed in to selling the team, and it was bought by Tom Illich (this time Little Caesar's Pizza, much tastier), who promptly hired Harwell back after a few years of vacation. Football legend Bo Schembechler was the team president at the time and he quit, mostly over the vehement criticism. He was the first active announcer to be elected to the Hall of Fame in 1981. He also became known to a national audience when he did playoff and world series games for, again, CBS radio during the 1990's. Most his later years were with mediocre to bad Tiger teams. They were outright awful from about 1990 to 2002, but he still made the games exiting and interesting. The listener always knew the game situation and there were plenty of stories to tell along the way. Even a bad team has good ball players and great characters. Whenever I hear the national anthem conclude, I still hear in my head Ernie Harwell say "And we'll be right back with Tiger Baseball...", complete with that crackly static of the wireless signal, amplitude modulated to 1490 kilohertz per second. He gave my a love for baseball and an interest in science, since I just had to learn how that little box plucked sounds out of the air like that.

He started every season off with a favorite quote of his, which I just found out tonight is from the Book of Solomon, "For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." Mr. Harwell also wrote several books, notably Tuned to Baseball and The Babe Signed My Shoe, as well as many songs and little poems. I guess that, whatever the afterlife involves, there is one heck of a baseball league out there and some team clearly needed an announcer. Like old Tiger Stadium, "That old grey lady at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull", Ernie Harwell is... Loooong Gone!

Ernie Harwell summed up baseball in this classic piece from 1955, best when read with the echoes of a Georgia drawl...

“Baseball is the President tossing out the first ball of the season and a scrubby schoolboy playing catch with his dad on a Mississippi farm. A tall, thin old man waving a scorecard from the corner of the dugout. That’s baseball. And so is the big, fat guy with a bulbous nose running home one of his 714 home runs.

“There’s a man in Mobile who remembers that Honus Wagner hit a triple in Pittsburgh 46 years ago. That’s baseball. So is the scout reporting that a 16-year-old pitcher in Cheyenne is a coming Walter Johnson. Baseball is a spirited race of man against man, reflex against reflex. A game of inches. Every skill is measured. Every heroic, every failing is seen and cheered, or booed. And then becomes a statistic.

“In baseball democracy shines its clearest. The only race that matters is the race to the bag. The creed is the rulebook. Color merely something to distinguish one team’s uniform from another.

“Baseball is a rookie. His experience no bigger than the lump in his throat as he begins fulfillment of his dream. It’s a veteran, too, a tired old man, of 35, hoping that those aching muscles can pull him through another sweltering August and September. Nicknames are baseball, names like Zeke and Pie and Kiki and Home Run and Cracker and Dizzy and Dazzy.

“Baseball is the cool, clear eyes of Rogers Hornsby. The flashing spikes of Ty Cobb, an over-aged pixie named Rabbit Maranville.

“Baseball just a game, as simple as a ball and bat. Yet, as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. A sport, a business and sometimes almost even a religion.

“Why, the fairy tale of Willie Mays making a brilliant World’s Series catch. And then dashing off to play stickball in the street with his teen-age pals. That’s baseball. So is the husky voice of a doomed Lou Gehrig saying, ‘I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth.’

“Baseball is cigar smoke, hot roasted peanuts, The Sporting News, ladies day, ‘Down in Front,’ Take Me Out to the Ball Game, and the Star Spangled Banner.

“Baseball is a tongue-tied kid from Georgia growing up to be an announcer and praising the Lord for showing him the way to Cooperstown. This is a game for America. Still a game for America, this baseball. Thank you.”

Lovely tribute!

I reserved Canticle at the library. Hope that it will be ready soon. I am excited about this one as I have heard lots of good things about it.
--BJ

Thanks Billiejean. There was more that I wanted to say but things were getting lengthy. The game was preempted from basic cable last night for the Red Wings playoffs, so there were probably more people listening on the radio than usual, which was a nice tribute in itself, but it is hard to concentrate when the radio guys are tearing up and a bit speechless for an inning or more. During the first few innings, there was a heavy rain, then the sun broke through behind the stadium and lit up a bright rainbow from one corner of the outfield to the other. I was hoping to find a picture of that online, but I haven't yet. That's twice this year that has happened. Early in the season, on a grey drizzly home opener, the TV camera zoomed in on Harwell's name on the outfield wall. At that same moment, the crowd erupted in cheers. At first we thought that the picture was on the scoreboard in the stadium, but, in reality, the sun had come out and lit up the entire field at just that moment. That's enough.

36. The Classical Greeks by Michael Grant
This is quite similar to The Rise of the Greeks in that it is broken in to disjointed chapters covering certain areas. This one is made up of chapters about influential people as opposed to geographic city-states. This one was more enjoyable to read and very informative. A great reference to keep on a shelf as well, as I can see myself going back periodically to reread the chapter on, say, Dionysius I and II of Syracuse and their battles against Carthage on Sicily. Grant has written basically a trilogy of this type of book. Rise of the Greeks is the first, this is the second and From Alexander to Cleopatra is the third, and they comprise a nice outline of Greek history spanning several centuries, and from many viewpoints.

I almost forgot that today is my one year 'anniversary' of opining on this thread. I apparently read 86 books in that span, but my first post was a review of two books, so there is an extra week in there. Oh well. That's still a lot of pages.

I read the first chapter of Canticle last night and was very impressed. The plan is to plow through several tonight but I have a lot to do between now and then. Dishes to wash, bike ride to Ye Olde Tobacco Shoppe, a round of golf to get prepped for league play tomorrow (the leaves are out in full and the course is playing much tighter). That should give me at least a few hours later for reading.

Congrats on your one year anniversary. 86 books is quite amazing!

I went to the library today to turn in John Adams, but Canticle was not there yet. I checked out Ulysses. Yikes! 1040 pages! Who am I kidding? I do not think I can read all that within the allowed recheck time limit. On the good side, I do not think that anyone else will be checking it out either. The only reason I am attempting it is because there is a group read of it. Me and my group reads!

Can I ask a dumb question? What is the movie The 300 about? Did you see the movie? If so, what did you think of it? I occasionally see that it is on TV, and I was thinking I wanted to watch it, but I really am not up on the history anymore. I loved the movie Gladiator and wondered how it might compare to that.

Looks like the Cleveland Cavaliers are having a great season. I am rooting for the Spurs now that OKC lost.
--BJ

300 was a comic bookish version of the legendary stand at Thermopylae, a narrow pass in northern Greece where an army was forced to march between the mountains and the Aegean Sea. The Spartan general Leonidas and his picked force of 300 Spartan hoplites led a massively outnumbered Greek defense that held of the huge invading army of Persian King Xerxes, freeing up portions of the Greek united army to retreat to Athens and defend the city and the isthmus that lead to the Pelopponesian Peninsula. This led the Persians to try to outflank the Greek positions by barricading Athens from the sea, and the Persian fleet was promptly smashed in the narrow straits between Athens and the island of Salamis. This was the plan of the Athenian general and politician Themistocles, and it worked perfectly. The Persian threat was over and Greece was left to squabble among themselves for several years before the Persians reemerged under the leadership of Artaxerxes, who wanted to finish the job his father could not.

I have not seen the movie, I'm not a fan of overly hollywooded movies. I should check it out to see what level of accuracy it portrays, but I just never feel like watching movies. I would much rather read a book. I don't think I have seen Gladiator in full either. The Brad Pitt movie Troy from several years ago now is pretty good, if you are at least somewhat familiar with the Iliad.

The only dumb question is the unasked one.

Troy was another movie I was wondering about. Thanks for the info.
--BJ

Where can I find the thread for the group read of Canticle? Thx.

One more thing on the Persian wars that I forgot above (I seem to do this alot, maybe a return to hand written drafts is in order?)

The Athenians abandoned their city to Xerxes, who promptly destroyed the city. The Greek army had been recalled to defend the Isthmus of Corinth, not far south of Athens, and everything north was abandoned. Xerxes soon recognized the hornet's nest he had stirred up and offered to rebuild the city, the offer was refused. Within a few generations, Alexander the Great had ridden this still burning anger to his empire.

If you want a quick read via wikipedia, the articles on Themistocles, Thermopylae, Salamis and the Battle of Plataea would be more than sufficient and more digestible than pounding through a book.

I also found a short article on the veracity of the 300 movie, and it brought up some good points about both the bias of contemporary sources and the dangers of projecting current ideas of civilization backwards in to the past. The Greek sources decry the persians as an 'evil empire' run by a dictatorial tyrant, but in actuality, the Persians were very open and fair to their citizens and their women had more legal rights than the Greeks, or at least the Athenians. There is always a danger in lumping 'The Greeks' together as the region was a polyglot of independent city-states who rarely got along and had different laws and ideas. Hence the Pelopponesian War, the feuding within the Delian League, actually almost every aspect of relations between the polises (polii?) was confrontational on some level.

Here's a link to Scribd dot com, and the article on the movie. It's informative, but you may have to register with Scribd to get it. It's a giant assemblage of ebooks, articles and all sorts of stuff. I find a few things interesting every morning. Just today I found a nest of old Avalon Hill tabletop wargames that are long out of print. It's also where I found those Classics Illustrated comic books, and read the Woman in White issue, as a cliff-notes type peek at a book that several people seemed to really enjoy.

Thanks so much for all the info! You are a wealth of knowledge.

Just in case you are interested, our next steampunk read is Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. Turns out it is over 700 pages!! But off to a good start (by which I mean interesting, not in vast numbers of pages read). Still don't have Canticle in from the library. Tell me it is not 700 pages long.

I am off to Houston to pick up my younger daughter from college. Yea! Hope you have a terrific weekend -- filled with baseball.
--BJ

Canticle is pretty short, I've made quite a dent in it already. It is one of those books where you have to see where things are going.

China Mieville is on my hit list at the moment. In my ebook library I save a copy of each author's wikipedia page for the assumably correct bio and bibliography, and I read through his wikipedia page a bit. Anyone who thinks Tolkien is a 'wen on the arse of fantasy literature' just isn't going to get along with me. Not that he's a poor writer or anything, as far as I know, but I couldn't disagree more.

The library says that Canticle is available for checkout now. So I will plan to get it tomorrow. Luckily, my daughter can take me. My husband's car needs repair, so he has to take mine to work. Hope it can handle the pastures!

Funny about the criticism of Tolkien. I just heard someone else (can't recall who) criticize him. And I loved both The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. But I am no critic. I just figure they are jealous!
--BJ

37. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller
What a great book. I'm not a big fan of the Vatican and what it stands for, but Miller does a great job of showing how a Roman Catholic church could aid a future society through preservation of knowledge. He also delves in to what I consider the silliness of some of their, oops I mean God's, rules of conduct, and obviously the perils of man governing himself with rules that people try to skirt around. As always. I will refrain from spilling any details since this is a group read and I wouldn't want to influence anyone's interpretation of the story other than the bit above. That's pretty implicit very early in the tale so I doubt that I've spoiled anything.

The Tigers played a dandy and beat the Yankees on ESPN last night. Things are so slanted towards the Yankees on that network that I can't believe that more people don't throw a fit. When the ESPN announcer says 'That brings up OUR leadoff hitter', it gets pretty obvious. Granted, it was Aaron Boone, who played for the Yanks, but there's a reason why announcers used to recuse themselves when they had a personal rooting interest in a team. Boone was hired by ESPN because he hit a huge game winning homer in the World Series several years ago. For NY. When the Yankees win, Baseball Tonight takes at least ten minutes to show why the Yankees are so awesome. Another ten for the Red Sox after a win, then they show the Phillies, Cubs, Mets and Cardinals. That's 2/3 of their hour and the rest of the teams get crammed in at the end. But when the Tigers beat NY on ESPN, they show a quick highlight package showing how close the Yankees were to winning then they move on. Screw you ESPN! There's a reason I use you for watching football events and don't give a carp about your opinions or news/highlight shows. End of angry rant that could have been much angrier and foul language filled. And I won't even start on the subjective situational strike zone when Pay-Rod walked on 6 pitches, 5 of which were strikes that didn't get called.

Well, I am glad that they won! :) I will try to catch some of the game on Wednesday night.

I read the intro to Canticle as it was finally available at the library. It sounded great from that. And I was glad to see that it is not too long. I hope to start it this week.

I asked my daughter about your photo of your critter, but she did not recognize it. I guess the only anime that she reads is Yotsuba. There must be a way to do a search on google, but I am not sure how. Since I don't really understand computers.
--BJ

If Brent Musburger (I can't believe that I can't recall how to spell his name after all these years on tv!) is calling the game, I sometimes just turn off the sound.
--BJ

I don't like Musberger either. He has been around for as long as I can remember, he was the studio guy for the NFL on CBS in the early 80's with Irv cross and Jimmy the Greek.
As usual I forgot a point in my post. There was a huge uproar in '97 when Keith Jackson and Bob Griese did the Rose Bowl. Jackson was a Washington State Alumnus and Bob's son Brian Griese was the Michigan quarterback.

Thanks for asking about the critter dude. I'm fairly sure that it is from Digimon, but there is a list of hundreds of characters from that show and I certainly don't care enough to pore through that huge list. The only reason I grabbed it was some kid threw it back in the bin when he noticed the eyes were crooked. Hence his new name of Stoney the Chinchilla. That will have to be good enough.

Since I have no one left to root for in basketball, my husband suggested that I root against LA. So I am going with that.

A Canticle for Leibowitz is going to be one of my top reads for the year. Thanks so much for nominating it for the group read.
--BJ

No problem, I liked it a lot.

You know who I root for in basketball? Whichever college has the most seniors. I haven't watched about the NBA in many years.

I only sort of follow basketball. Must be hard to find a team with a lot of seniors these days. I especially enjoyed watching the Lady Longhorns play in the mid-80s. I could go to as many games as I wanted, mostly general admission, for free. Fast break, high scoring. Those were the days.
--BJ

Now that I have read A Canticle for Leibowitz, I am having trouble getting into Perdido Street Station. It has such a great title, but the writing style doesn't seem as good as I thought it was going to be. This always happens after reading a great book. Maybe I will snap out of it.
--BJ

I'm currently enjoying the inverse of that. One of the first books I got when starting to get in to fantasy stories was Fred Saberhagen's Complete Book of Swords, way back when I was a freshman in High School. I thought it was ok at the time and bogged down in the sequels, never finishing the whole thing. It starts with a trilogy about the twelve Swords, forged by Vulcan and thrown by the gods in to the realm of the humans, just for the gods' own amusement. It doesn't work out according to plan as the Swords are more powerful than the gods themselves. I'm far more impressed with it twenty years later, and it makes a nice follow up to Canticle for Leibowitz. The gods are portrayed as human like, petty, bickering, but yet ultra powerful. There are a few instances where some old fashioned omnipotence would come in handy, but there would not be much of a story left. I'm sensing that the point of the whole story is the inherent silliness of arguing and fighting over human created labels artificially attached to 'God' as a concept. Maybe I'm reading too much in to a simple fantasy story, but that's how I see it. Plus, the writing style is very simple, like R.E. Howard. It leaves certain details, like a character's facial features, or exactly what the forest looks like, up to the reader to insert whatever he is comfortable with, while still quickly giving essential details. A friend of mine was slogging through the Wheel of Time books, despairing over the wheel of story that repeats itself over and over without going anywhere, and slammed the eighth book shut after a several page description of the different shades of green in a dew covered grape vine. This style is the opposite of that. I'm pretty sure it stems from the pulp magazine serial writing, as well as a simple economy of words.

Picture link here

'The searchers all say
They'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind 'er...'

38. The Complete Book of Swords by Fred Saberhagen
Definitely a better fantasy story than I remembered, the true bonus will be if the Books of Lost Swords are as good. Those are the ones that I bogged down on twenty years ago or so. There are eight books, as I recall, all fairly short like the three books that make up the Complete Book of Swords.
Mr. Saberhagen is definitely an old time scifi writer. There are snippets of technology from the 'Old World', biblical styled tales of the world before and after a holocaust of some sort that nearly destroyed the earth, saved by the god Ardneh who protected the remains of civilization. Ardneh is a part of some other works by the author which are of a scifi bent and they manage to tie together in a pretty interesting way. I have to admit reading the wikipedia page about the book of swords which explains this.
The story is pretty basic. The gods forge the twelve swords then throw them in to the realm of men just for fun. This turns out to be a bad idea and leads to the exposition of the gods being a creation of man and not the other way around. There is a major battle at the end where two of the Swords square off and things come to a sudden conclusion. Four of the swords are destroyed or removed from the realm along the way, leading to the eight Books of Lost Swords which follow. They involve Mark and Ben (the main heroes of CBoS) wandering around the realm searching for or using the remaining swords, allowing the author to give each of the incredibly powerful Swords their own tales. Should be fun.

I added this one to my wishlist.
--BJ

39. The Book of Lost Swords by Fred Saberhagen
The best way to sum this book up is that it is decent fantasy, not great, but far from poor. I'm glad I finally got around to reading them after twenty years of lugging the books around through various moves over the years. Stonecutter's Story is by far the best of the seven short books in the omnibus editions, in my opinion. Going in, I was the most curious as to what this story would be like, as the Sword's power is rather mundane compared to the rest. It cuts stone like a hot knife through butter. That's it. No berzerk fury like Townsaver or Shieldbreaker, no mind controlling powers like Mindsword or Soulcutter, no mystical advice or luck like Wayfinder or Coinspinner. There is even a healing Sword, obviously called Woundhealer.
To me, it seemed like an emulation of a Hercule Poirot mystery mixed with a bit of Holmes. Maybe Holmes mixed with Poirot, or a Holmes like character that came across to me as Poirot because he was an eccentric and hairdressery foreigner. He and a medic named Watson, oops I mean Kasimir, followed up clues and investigated several possibilities to the location of Stonecutter throughout the large city of Eylau, logically deducing who a thief would sell such a blade to, or use it for. It's quite a clever little mystery, set in an arabic styled medieval fantasy city. I read it in one sitting, and this story alone made reading this collection of 11 small novels worth it. I'm hoping that the series of books is greater than the sum of its parts, which is a distinct possibility.

Since this is my little corner of the myriad internets, here's a picture of Lake Huron on a nice day. She's nowhere near this friendly on a bad day.
Picture link here

# 51 Hello DP! Was the picture above taken at the same place as the picture at #47 was? The picture on #47 is so beautiful but you didn’t mention where it was taken.

Wow, great photo! Are you going to read Dune in June? I don't think that I still have my copy. I was thinking about requesting it from the library, my new favorite thing to do.
--BJ

Porua, #47 is Whitefish Bay, the east end of Lake Superior, hence the few lines from Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. My friend Bill's dad was an engineer on that ship but was transferred off to another ship that summer, so he lived and his shipmates did not. Nasty, that Lake Superior. I like Gitchee Gumee better, but nobody goes in for old Indian names.

#51 is actually off the small town of Harrisville, about halfway up Huron. The ports further north are situated on the westward curve of the mitten, so they are out of the way if you are crossing to Canada. Hence, this is about as far north as I have sailed on the Michigan side of the lake, with a few exceptions. My family used to vacation in the Georgian Bay / Manitoulin Island area of Ontario every summer and Harrisville was usually the last port before crossing, or the first on returning, depending on Dad's mood and/or the winds. I was recently browsing Google Earth and bookmarked a few nice photos linked therein. I'll slap one up every so often.

Dune in June rings a nice tune,
but my read-me pile is strewn,
stacked near to the moon,
on my time it does impugn,
but yet I'm not immune
to a reading of Dune soon.

I like to alternate between fiction and NF projects, so after the Saberhagen I plan on a reread of one of a few books, Keegan's masterpiece of military history The Face of Battle, The Mind in the Cave has been on my mind the last few days, or something like that. A several night side jaunt, then I had better commune with Dune. Just on principle. I'm guessing mid month or a bit later.

Hey DP! I too enjoy seeing your photos! My sister and I have been talking about visiting Munising, MI this summer. I found a brochure for the Glass Bottom Boat Shipwreck Tours.

Sounds like a nice trip. I wish I could get up to the UP more often, it's my kind of place. More trees than people. My parents once took a trip up that way and they said there is a nice road overlooking Pictured Rocks, but a boat tour would be much better. Can't go wrong either way.

Picture link here

# 54 Thanks for answering my question. Such beautiful images! Makes your thread mighty hard to load but what the heck!

I saw on tv what happened to the Detroit Lions. They can't get a break, can they?
--BJ

I think you meant the Tigers, actually, unless the Lions really screwed something up in minicamp. Galarraga has struggled for a year and a half after a good rookie campaign and he deserved that perfect game. Being from Toledo, the umpire drove home to see his mom overnight and get a much needed hug. The umpire who botched that call was behind the plate for this afternoon's game and he was in tears, after being very emotional about blowing that call. In Joyce's defense, Galarraga missed the base with his first foot and still had time to adjust to tap the base with his other foot. I think that's why the ump started to signal out then changed his call to safe. Galarraga brought the lineup card out to Mr. Joyce to start the game and he handled himself with more class than I would have expected, even from the nicest guy on the team. Several of the players apologized to Joyce for really giving it to him at the end of the game. The Tigers rolled the Indians 12-6 this afternoon and didn't even play well in the field. They were due one pounding like that as a makeup call from the baseball gods.

Oh yeah, Ken Griffey Jr. retired. That sure got put on a back burner on ESPN!

You are right. I meant the Tigers. That is what my husband said. "You mean the Tigers, right?" Anyway, surely that can be changed? A once in a lifetime event like that.
--BJ

I say leave it as is, even though it sucks as is. I am vehemently against adding a replay element to baseball. The boundary / home run review rules are fine because it is hard for an old duffer like most of the umps to get out there to make a call, and there are some odd angles and whatnot on some of these fences. Just a quick example, the Twins' new park has a big limestone wall next to the left field foul pole, with about a one foot gap between them. There are railings behind fences, something difficult to judge in almost every park.

The reason replay is a bad idea is that they (like in football) go to extreme slow motion replay and they will get fooled by the 'ball is in the glove' versus the proper 'ball smacks in the pocket'. The bang-bang play like that call in Galarraga's perfect game is more of an audio call. The ump hears the glove pop and judges whether the runner was on the base, by sound as much as visually. The MLB umps are right almost every time, except for the ridiculous round strike zone that gets called these days. That's a rant for another day. Baseball does not need replay bogging things down. Live with a bad call once a year or so, it's a game.

Yeah, but this is a once on a lifetime achievement. Heartbreaking.
--BJ

40. The Book of Lost Swords: The Second Triad by Fred Saberhagen
I just can't put my finger on a reason why these are little better than mediocre. The stories are interesting and well written in a pleasant concise way, but there is just no pizazz. A few of them plod along to a quick but flat finish (There are three books in the Complete book and eight in the Lost Swords books). As near as I can figure, it's because the main hero, Prince Mark, is pretty humdrum and really just an average guy who has some fancy parentage. His sidekick Ben is much more interesting, and realistic, in that he has traits and flaws. Mark is a bit to David Hasslehoffy, to coin a phrase. Also, so much of the world is a desolate wasteland with most of the travel through and across boring deserts and scrubland that require little textual detail. This jibes with the reality that the story takes place thousands of years after a nuclear holocaust that took place 50,000 years before the first story began with the forging of the twelve Swords, but the whole Ardneh thing was supposed to have altered the laws of physics to prevent such an event (it's some sort of advanced computer system from about our current era that is remembered in the far future as a benevolent, but still lowercase god). Still, the concluding two stories seem much more engaging, and a decent conclusion seems to be in the offing.

I would not readily recommend them to a general reader, a serious fantasy/SF reader should make a dash through them just because Saberhagen is a fairly famous author, although I'd bet that the Swords books are not among his best work. That would probably be his Berserker stories and a long vampire series. The Empire of the East books that lead up to these stories about the Swords don't particularly sound appealing, they mostly revolve around the life of the arch villain Wood (from the Swords stories) as a mortal, tens of thousands of years earlier, battling for supremacy with other evil bastards and a bunch of demons. No thanks.

Also, I've decided to take down the photos that I post every so often, replacing the old ones with a link after a week or two instead, to save bandwidth for those with slower computers or modems (notably Porua). That said, here's a pair of slightly angrier pictures of Lake Huron, which suits my mood better. I'm sick of dealing with congestion, lack of sleep and a sore neck and back from coughing. All from quitting smoking finally after 18 years of being stupid.

Storm

waterspouts

Great photos! And congrats on quitting smoking!
--BJ

OK, that was spooky. I hit submit and the photos changed!
--BJ

Thanks-I posted the wrong pictures, the ice ones are for a hot day. The new ones are the much angrier ones promised. And two weeks of bare minimum of smoke, including three days with none and no desire for one. I had a Marlboro on Sunday after disc golfing and ended up blacked out face down on a picnic table. Never again.

Good for you on quitting smmoking!!!!!! Love the pictures!

I heard a rumor that Nebraska is definitely going to the Big 10, and Missouri did not get invited. Wonder what that means? I would rather the Big 12 stay the Big 12. Add BYU or Utah or Boise State (scary good!).
--BJ

I have no idea what the deal is with this conference realignment. Other than chasing after huge TV revenues. The PAC 10 might as well add all those other teams and monopolize all of the western colleges that are worth a tinker's damn. At least the bowl system will have to be changed somewhat, maybe we can finally get a playoff system of sorts. If all that the conferences are after is huge piles of money and will throw away their tradition like that, then let's have a real champion, you greedy jerks.

I am all for a playoff, too. I heard that leaving the Big 12 without agreement of 9 teams means that the leaving schools pay $10 million to the remaining conference to be divided by the remaining schools. I also heard that Colorado left for the PAC 10. And USC just got in a world of trouble over the Reggie Bush thing.
--BJ

The rumor I read was that A&M was considering the SEC. Maybe as a bargaining chip, but I doubt they would split up with UT. USC is in big trouble. Miami went through the same level of sanctions in the late 90's and it took them six years to have a winning season again. They still are below their level from then.

41. The Lost Swords: Endgame by Fred Saberhagen
These books deserve better than 'I'm glad that's over.' They are decent but not great. Maybe I'm just spoiled after reading so much stuff that I thought was incredible. The best way I can sum it up is that it is like having a DVD set of Night Court and you have to watch every single episode before you can watch anything else on TV. I am glad that I finally finished the series after starting it riding a school bus twenty years ago, and the books do conclude with a happy ending. Ben of Purkinje has the most intriguing ending, carrying on his role as the surprisingly handy bumbler. He is always underestimated and finds a way to help out the cause in the end. Ben will remain as the highlight of the series for me and also as a memorable, well-loved character. The rest of the series is as enduring as the aforementioned Night Court. It will always be around, but not really remembered as a classic.

On to other news, the time has finally come for me to read The Singing Life of Birds. Surprisingly little of my library is feel good-refreshing reading, something I need after slogging through the Books of Swords and before plowing in to Dune and its sequels. There's just too much war and violence in both history and the F/SF genres.

Dune would not be feel good or refreshing. But interesting and complex.

I just watched the Will Smith version of I am Legend. I guess it had a better ending than The Last Man on Earth. One of these days I must read that book by Matheson.

I had not realized that Miami had had similar sanctions. But I certainly recall poor SMU. I was glad to see that they had a decent season this year at last. They will never be the same, though. I hate to think of the end of the Big 12. I like things to stay the same. Did you hear that Congress was going to try to force the Baseball Commissioner to give that Tigers pitcher his no-hitter? I do think he should get it, but should he get it because of an act of Congress?
--BJ

Oh yeah, SMU. They still haven't recovered.

I'm still sour about the perfect game. By the way, it was not a 'just' a no hitter, of which there are about one to one and a half per year on average, but the twenty-first perfect game, which pop up more like once every six years or more, depending on when you start counting from. Galarraga's would have been the 21st since 1880, I believe, even though most things like that start at the Modern Era date of 1900 or 1901, which marks the founding of the American League, to compete with the National League. Anyway, I'm still sore about the whole deal.

The fly in the ointment is that in every other no hitter, the pitcher had to overcome the errors on the field by both his players and the umpires, and the players make way more mistakes than umps. It's a shame, but that's the way it is. Don Denkinger made the same error on a similar play in the '85 World Series, the Cardinals made what should have been the last out of the game at first base, the runner was wrongly called safe. The Royals went on to steal that game six and also won game seven, taking the championship, even though the Cards kind of won game six and should have been the champs. Much like Galarraga 'should' have his perfect game. It's over and done, and goes down as a footnote in history because of a bad call.

Congress gets involved in baseball like they do for several reasons. One, to get your name in the press, hoping people will remember on election day that you were the guy that tried to overrule the baseball commissioner. Two, and more importantly, baseball as a business is exempt from several federal laws, notably the anti-trust laws, and as such are subject to special congressional oversight. The laws keep monopolies or cartels from completely dominating a market through any number of sneaky things, like price gouging or refusal to sell products, or out of control mergers making things in a particular market too centralized. Blah, blah, blah, you say, but when was the last time somebody tried starting a competing major league? Never, at least not since the AL & NL were granted those exemptions. The whole deal goes back to the collapse of the Federal League (1915?) and how the National League owners allowed the teams they wanted (or the owners they wanted) to join their league, but not others. Like how a few years ago the MLB owners refused to let Mark Cuban buy the Cubs because they didn't want him in their old boys club, instead letting some cable TV company billionaire in.

Interesting. Doesn't apply to the NFL, I guess.
--BJ

I went ahead and put in a request for Dune at my library. I discovered that there are a million Dune books, lots written by, I guess, the son, Brian Herbert.
--BJ

Yes, much like Christopher Tolkien's editions of his father's notes. The difference is that the Dune books are in novel form and are written with Kevin Anderson, a veteran of novelizations in other fantasy worlds, notably Star Wars and DC Comics. Anderson wrote an interesting book that I wouldn't mind having a copy of, The Last Days of Krypton. Not that I'm a big Superman fan, or of superhero comics as a genre, but that might be an interesting story. The only superhero comics in my moderate collection are a Green Lantern version of 1001 Arabian Nights and a Secret Files of the JLA issue detailing Batman's plans to take out the other Justice League heroes if they ever turn to evil. The rest is more along the lines of a graphic novel fantasy/SF stories, like Lady Pendragon, Rising Stars, and Planetary, none of which anyone reading this has heard of, I'm sure. I may have a few issues of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

That NBC show Heroes which seemed to be pretty popular is a total ripoff of the Rising Stars comic. The one time I watched it I saw a name in the credits of one of the bigwigs at Image Comics (Rob Liefeld or Jeph Loeb) who presided over the publishing of the Rising Stars series. That series was a huge seller from about 1999 to 2001 and I wasn't surprised to see a TV version of it, but a ripoff version was a surprise. The comic series was written by J. Michael Strazinsky of Babylon 5 fame, who showed up at Image Comics with a completed storyboard for the entire 24 issue run of the comic. Somehow, it got spun around and twisted in to the similar, but apparently different enough to avoid a lawsuit, series, with no credit to Strazinsky (that I know of).

And no, the anti-trust exemption does not extend to the NFL. I believe MLB is the only business exempt.

Wikipedia has a nice Dune bibliography here

ESPN News says that the Big 12 will stay together with 10 teams. The Big 10 will have 12 teams. And the PAC-10 will have 11 teams. I am a happy camper so far. My Thanksgivings have been saved!!!

Are you going to read all of the Dune books?
--BJ

In honor of that, when I, my brother, and pals Scott and Al watch the Tigers whale on the Nationals tonight, we'll call ourselves the Big 7. Maybe the Big 9, apparently it doesn't matter what the number is.

I have the first three Dune books and plan to go at least that far (Dune, Messiah & Children of...) After that, I have to track down God Emperor, Heretics and Chapterhouse, but I think the abovementioned Scott has them. Just about all of the Brian Herbert / KJ Anderson books are prequels based on daddy's notes and historical outlines. If I really like the Frank Herbert books, I'll find them eventually but we'll see. They were all big sellers in the SF Book Club so plenty of used editions are out there.

I think I read at least three of them, but I did like the first one best. The book is not available at the library yet. My daughter wants to read it, too.
--BJ

Sadly, my hearing has been giving me problems and I have to set aside The Singing Life of Birds for a while. The book comes with a CD and there are accompanying sonograms within the text which the author uses to evaluate and compare (or contrast) the songs. There are high pitched parts of it that I can't make out clearly enough, but they are clearly represented in the graphs. Plus, being tied town to a location while reading a book is annoying, I read a few chapters every day upstairs with my little nephew. We each read our own books, he doesn't like it when I read to him. Very stubborn like his mother.

The Singing Life of Birds sounds very interesting thus far and I really want to see what conclusions the author makes about the why's of bird songs and calls. I have read enough to realize that he is studying things like regional dialects within a species, whether birds learn their songs from the father or the neighborhood, things like that. Very interesting stuff in a branch of science that I never put a lot of thought in to. I mean, aren't chickadees just chickadees?

So, therefore, I'll just jump in to Dune and get that over with, in fact, I'm already several chapters in. However, I am very eager to get back in to the Greek and Roman world, and after that Middle-Earth, but Dune just has to be done, that whole 'Dune in June' thing and all.

Boy, I hope that my copy comes into the library soon! What do you think so far?
--BJ

I'm not overly far in to it yet, but I like the writing style. Very clear, but yet complex, like Bradbury (Other than Something Wicked this way Comes, which I despised). Looks like a lot of high level political intrigue, maybe some examination of the corporatocracy concept. The CHOAM Corporation is the most unexpected part of it so far. What is it, and why do the most powerful of the Houses control it? No idea as of yet.

I have not read much Herbert over the years, his book The Godmakers turned me off many years ago. I had no idea what the point of the story was, or even the concept. That was one of the first classic author era SF books I had read at the time, before Asimov, Blish and Clarke, so there's a chance that I wasn't ready for it yet. However, I have heard that Herbert is, or can be at times, overly complex. My friend Scott, who has more or less shamed me in to reading Dune, admits to not being able to understand Children of Dune at all. Maybe it was Heretics of Dune, either way, he hit a wall with Herbert's complexity.

I think that the book is available at the library now, so I hope to pick it up later today. I read Dune in college because I was taking a class in the Classics department called Parageography (I think) which had to do with assembling clues to a society and then drawing conclusions on the final exam. Then for the final project we had to produce clues to a society that we created. No final paper explaining it, just clues. I think that the class is still taught, but I am not sure if the same way. It was the worst basement classroom ever with fluorescent lighting that made my eyes hurt. Anyway, one of the other assignments was to read and review a scifi book. I did not read any scifi at the time. I asked the professor if I could read Dune. He told me that if I was not already familiar with it, then it would probably be too complex for me. So I read a book by Cherryh, which was much easier. Since I already had the copy of Dune, I ended up reading it over the break. Boy was I glad that he had me use a different book for my review! But as complex as Dune was, I found it fascinating. I read a few of the sequels, too. I am pretty sure that I read Children of Dune, and that may have been the one where I stopped reading them. Anyway, I can't wait to read it again and see what I think about it now.
--BJ

Sounds like an interesting class, other than the awful lighting. I hate bad fluorescent lights.

For the record, I like Tim Clark at the US Open. I always pick that guy.

Comic relief: I checked the results for last night's local disc golf doubles league and the winners were Justin FRENCH and Jim FRIES, with a score of -14, over in Freeland at Tittabawassee Park.

Sorry, I bet I already told you that whole story. No more memories, I promise. :)

I am kind of pulling for Phil Mickelson, myself. Although he is kind of hot and cold.

Bad news about Dune. Apparently "available" does not mean ready. In fact, someone else is in line ahead of me. Probably no Dune in June for me. Rats. I said how can there only be one copy of this significant book in a town of half a million? Wrong thing to say. Oops. Anyway, I guess the other copies were "lost."
--BJ

I always pull for Phil, in fact I'd like to see the Mickel-Slam this summer. The first round thursday was the first time Tiger and Phil both failed to make a birdie in the same round. One of those odd stats.

My local library used to have a problem with books and music coming up 'lost' too. Every single Dungeons and Dragons book, which I was surprised they even had, almost every Bob Dylan album, my friend bill has a Rolling Stones cassette anthology that he apparently pinched in the '80s. I only recently found out about it and he's lucky they haven't carried cassettes in years.

pic here
Ice on Lake Huron, pretty typical stuff. This is for everyone in the south that's sick of the heat.

# 89 I feel chilly just by looking at that!

Truly amazing! Last night we watched March of the Penguins which was quite a story of survival in the extremes. Thanks for the photo.
--BJ

And a lighthouse too!! I love lighthouses!!

There are lighthouses all over around here. That one is Port Austin on the northern tip of the thumb. Penguins would like it in winter, unless they were crushed by the ice piling up. Every few years the ice threatens and/or smashes houses here and there that are too close to shore.

If anyone cares, Tim Clark (see #85 above) finished tied for twelfth, with rounds of +1, +1, +1, and a sad +3 on sunday. Not bad for a tournament where the winner was even par over four days. For the golf fans out there who may not know, Clark is like a mix of Ian Woosnam and Tom Lehman, in that he's a short guy who is more of a match play format player than a way-under-par shooter, as well as a great ball striker. He plays better when conditions are very difficult and doesn't really shoot a -10 round that often. A guy needs to find new players to root for every decade or so on the PGA tour.

Also, I am well in to dune, about halfway or so. It is excellent, even considering that i was already expecting excellence. There is so much depth that it reminds me a bit of Great Expectations, in that you could delve far in to the minds of the characters. Plus, there are so many little tidbits of wisdom scattered throughout. Here are a few examples.

'Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pas over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn to see fear's path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.'

'Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife-chopping off what's incomplete and saying, "Now it's complete because it's ended here."'

Here's another one...
"The night is a tunnel, a hole into tomorrow..."

Tigers vs. Mets, Wednesday night on ESPN

Love the quotes. I am so disappointed that my book is not in at the library. Now I want to read it more than ever.

Did you see the leader (Dusty Johnson?) crumble into dust on Sunday? I felt so sorry for him.
--BJ

I saw the whole thing (Dustin, not Dusty). That was a treacherous course. Pebble Beach has very small, slanted greens, and at those speeds, they are nasty. Not quite Pinehurst nasty, but close. The rough is very thick and tangly, notice that Phil elected to leave his ball resting on an electrical cable rather than take a free drop nearby. Also, there are very few flat spots, the ball is rarely level with your feet, in fact level fairways are the main features of the easier holes. DJ just blew up, the highest score by a 54 hole leader since 1970, something like that, one shot behind the worst ever by some guy from the 1930's that I've never heard of. And he had won the Pebble Beach Pro-Am two years running, albeit with a much more forgiving setup.

Another thing I like about Dune is that the different groups of people (all humans, no aliens so far) have very different dialects. One of the smuggler guys says 'You did not hear me say that', whereas most people would have said 'I didn't say that.' The first phrase denotes more of a 'Here's a fact but you didn't hear it from me...', but is used by Herbert as as way of noting that the listener in the story is making assumptions about what the smuggler said.

I saw Mickelson hit the ball right-handed once (with the left-handed club backwards), because he could not get on the other side of the ball. The views were spectacular.
--BJ

Funny thing is, Phil is actually right handed, but golfs left for some reason. He warms up by throwing a baseball with Bones, his caddy, before range time.

Pebble Beach is pretty nice. #7, 97 yards sunday, shortest hole in US Open history.
picture here

Nice photo. It looks even better than on tv.
--BJ

42. Dune by Frank Herbert
I am officially out of the nerd fleet brig after reading this SF masterpiece, but I honestly think that I would have enjoyed it less if I had read it earlier in my SF career. It is a very deep book, as several characters would put it, plots within plots within plots, feints within feints within feints. The political awareness and commentary by Herbert is profound and eye opening as the author makes so many wise statements about politics and political power that they would be hard to count, much like 1984 in a way, but without being depressing and disheartening. The literature value of it is quite high as well and it is something that should be widely read outside of the SF community, and I'd bet that it is. Herbert also explores the concept of legitimate precognition in great detail. The world of Arrakis is the sole provider of 'spice', which gives the near mystical power of foresight. This is greatly magnified in the person of Paul, who is the product of a centuries long genetic breeding project. He becomes a member of the Fremen, a people who wander the desert in their stillsuits, designed to constantly reclaim their body's water. Water is a critical part of the story and makes the Fremen a unique fantasy creation.

My only complaint is that there is a bit too much of the 'making up new words for old things' going on throughout, to the extent that there is a several page long glossary in the rear of the book. At least in my copy, I'm assuming it is standard. Do you really need to call apricots 'mish-mish'? Not really. Some of this sort of thing is standard, and frankly sets a fantasy realm apart from reality, but it's not that big of a deal. Something a non SF reader might want to know going in, that's all.

It really is one of the most inventive worlds that I've read, along with a list of memorable and very well developed characters, all of which have distinct personalities and dialogue traits. Another opinion of mine, Herbert is the most Dickens-like of the classic SF authors. He takes a long time to develop characters and makes them unique. There are a few totally evil bastards along the way, but they are interesting characters in their own right, with their own feints with in feints, plots within plots. In my limited experience with Dickens, this seems to be what makes his stories so enduring and endearing. Everybody knows that the best stories are character driven, look at Star Trek. Those characters are so enjoyed that the actors usually have their careers ruined, or at least permanently colored by playing them.

Most people know of Dune as a stand-alone work, but it is actually the beginning of a centuries spanning epic saga of a colossal space empire. The sixth book (Chapterhouse: Dune) is set thousands of years after Dune and the story set in motion in the first book chugs right along for millennia, involving the same institutions. There are several prequel books by Herbert's son, and a few that take place after Dune, wikipedia has what seems to be a decent chronology of the dozen or more total Dune books. I'm really exited to explore one of the great creations of the SF genre, it does compare favorably to Middle-Earth thus far in scope and detail. We'll see if that continues. (I'd bet that it does)

Here's the closest thing to Arrakis that we have in Michigan - Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park. It is a difficult climb, I doubt I could make it without stopping several times on the way up. I'm too fat for that stuff these days...
picture here

also here and here

I think that I have been there.
--BJ

43. Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
Book two is much shorter than the first, and has much less action. As a separate work, it is almost silly, but as a part of a longer story Dune Messiah is an integral part of a SF classic. I prefer to look at it in the latter way. In a nutshell, Paul sees in to the future and doesn't like the things that he sees, but they have to happen any way, so they do. Much sadness and anguish follow and a weird love union emerges. The reader gets to see the human sides of the characters from Dune, which is interesting. Also, the future sometimes turns out a bit different than anticipated, big surprise there. Not particularly recommended unless you plan on reading the entire Dune series. At least it is short.

Just for the sake of typing something here, the Tigers have really gotten shafted by umpires this year. First, the Galarraga perfect game ruined, then a ninth inning rally ended with a called strike that was a foot outside. Both umpires publicly apologized for making bad calls. When is the last time a team had two umps admit publicly and vocally to blowing major calls? (I kicked the s% out of that call)Then today, the battery of Bonderman and Lairdy were thrown out for arguing unbelievably bad calls on pitches that were clearly strikes. Even the lame Fox Box strike zone thing showed them as strikes. Dead center sinking fastballs, Bondo's key pitch. Then a second three run homer. Thanks Blue! They were the kind of calls where you have the catcher set up low, then oops, lost that ball high, right at the ump's head. That's a better way to get thrown out than just for yelling between innings.

And, only two All-Stars this year. That's a joke. No Magglio Ordonez, no Brennan Boesch, batting over 200 points better than the league average vs. lefties, no Zumaya who snapped off the tip of his elbow (not cool at all), no Verlander because Oakland had to have a representative. Lame for a first place team. Somehow, the Tigers are honestly tied with the Twins on percentage, but up a game in the loss column.

The Fourth of July always makes me think of baseball, what's more american than our national pastime? Isn't there a song about that? Baseball, hot dogs and apple pie, I believe. It truly parallels our country and society on several levels. As baseball goes, so goes America, or maybe it's vice versa. Nobody knows.

The 4th always makes me think of tennis. Funny, isn't it?
Happy 4th of July!
--BJ

Happy seventh, I've been busy disc golfing in some moderate heat, then some serious relaxing. Actually put up my best score Tuesday at +5, which works out to -9 against course par. Most disc golfers play pro par where all of the holes are par 3's, hence the disparity of 14 strokes. It's just easier that way, there are too many stoners who play and it keeps confusion to a minimum.

Anyway, I wanted to make up for the somewhat negative baseball rant above. The Tigers had just come off a difficult road trip, the opponents were very good (Braves, Mets & Twins) and the heat was oppressive. Plus my smoking has been at a bare minimum so I really needed to vent some frustration into a different source than my Tiger fan buddies.

Miguel Cabrera is the best player in baseball. He has had the potential to be that for several years, since he was a nineteen year old playing for the Marlins, but it has finally come to fruition. Big home runs when the situation calls for it, gap shot doubles when needed, clutch singles, whatever the most beneficial hit for the situation would be, he gets it. Some people will argue that he hits too many solo home runs, but if the team is behind, he would rather put himself on base to set up a big inning than just hit a meaningless Sammy Sosa style solo home run. And that's just his batting skills. He was a solid third baseman a few years ago and has now worked himself into arguably the best first baseman in the American League, if not all of MLB. He is outstanding defensively and it has been a rare treat to watch him grow and blossom over the last two and a half years.

In Tuesday night's game he not only hit a colossal game tying homer in the ninth, but in the eighth he fielded a ground ball at first and fired over to third to cut down a runner instead of taking the easy out at first. That heads up play most likely saved a run. Johnny Damon it a big homer to win the game in the eleventh in a game we had no business winning. The Orioles played far better for eight and a half innings. I guess that's why they are 25-58 and a last place team.

Thanks for reading along if you are not a baseball fan, or even a sports fan. The Tigers were the worst team in baseball from about 1989 until 2005. That's a long time, from when I was 13 or 14 until age 31. There is an entire generation of Michigan kids who don't even care about baseball because the Tigers were a laughingstock. At least they were dominant in my formative years. Just something I'm passionate about.

So, to the non-sports fans, if you hear the name Miguel Cabrera on the TV or radio, you might want to perk up a bit and see what he's up to. He will be a shoo-in hall of famer someday.

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Today is the day LaBron James picks his team. Still no Dune at the library. This is why I like to buy books.
--BJ

The Dune books are a great book series to have around the house. There is so much depth that I can see how a reread would be very rewarding. I'm even more impressed with Dune than Harry Potter. Children of Dune is (so far) particularly enthralling. Very profound, with lines like 'I don't trust the empire you would build because you have no thoughts for the well-being of your subjects, only for your own power.' I'm pretty anxious to get back in to the Greek and Roman world though.

I have a feeling that LeBron stays in Cleveland, they just hired Byron Scott as coach. As a Browns fan, I do hope he stays, but it really doesn't affect me at all. I haven't followed basketball since the Bad Boys era of the Pistons, that was something like 1991 or 2. If you need the information, that was the team with Isaiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Bill Laimbeer, Vinnie Johnson, Rick Mahorn, Dennis Rodman, and John Salley.

Finally got Dune from the library. I am going out of town and will take it with me.
--BJ

By the way, I remember that team of Detroit Pistons. They were definitely good.

Cool. Dune is way better than any basketball. Have a safe and well read trip.

*waves*

My husband is — or perhaps I should say, was — a big fan of LeBron and the Cavs, so that whole debacle loomed large in my house last week. I really thought he would stay in Cleveland too. But this has been a great opportunity for my husband to check where he is putting his faith and hope. LeBron's just a selfish person like the rest of us, and people will always let us down. I'm disappointed, sure, but I also see a bright side... my husband won't spend nearly so much time watching the games now :)

I read Dune several years ago and though I found it to be a technically well-executed story, there was an indefinable something lacking, a dry detachedness to the narrative that prevented me from really loving it or the characters. Did you have anything like that experience when you read the first book? Does the tone of the books change as the series progresses?

I'm not sure the point of Dune is to 'love' the characters. They are an elite few of very powerful galactic empire rulers and underlings and the point is more about their thoughts and actions as it relates to the Empire. Dune has so many levels of analogue to issues of our time (like much of the great scifi stories) that a detached narrative fits perfectly. Everything about the story is stark and severe, the characters are plotting and planning several steps in advance and Herbert uses dialogue, both spoken and in thoughts, to give the readers hints as to what is about to happen. I'm having a hard time thinking of a book series that I found more fascinating, really.
Maybe the Dune books are more story and idea driven than character driven. Not that the characters have no role, but the reader just doesn't get much of a glimpse into their personal lives, especially in the later books. And no, the tone doesn't change, but a new concept does develop. Seeing the future, prescience: Man's ultimate evolutionary achievement, or the smothering end of all creativity? The story keeps getting more and more interesting as the consequences of the first Dune book are explored.

I should apologize for taking so long to get this message done, but I had a long weekend at the Tall Ships Festival in Bay City, the next town down the highway. I was privileged to see and meet a great band from Belgium called Cre Tonnerre, as well as a band from Poland and a few from Norway. Needless to say, I was in no condition to try and type up a thoughtful response to your inquiries after spending most of a weekend at the bar. Hopefully I did a good enough job today.

As far as basketball goes, I have no idea why anyone would still be a fan. The game is a pale shadow of itself strategically. I like to call it '2-on 2-with-6-people-standing-around-watching-and-hoping-the-ball-bounces-to-them'. When is the last time there was a great jump-shooter? Or a humble layup? Now it's all three pointers, slam dunks and sloppy fouls. There is no fighting for rebounds, I daresay there is almost no basketball. And the college game is ruined as well because any player who is elite in the NCAA jumps to the pros after a year or two in college. Here's a test. See how many of the teams in the NCAA tournament next march have star senior players. Few, and most of the few will be smaller schools who have a few players who are actually students on the side. I washed my hands of it years ago and have never looked back.

That being said...

44. Children of Dune obviously by Frank Herbert
Things take off back to the level of Dune. As the title implies, this is the tale of the children of Chani and Muad'Dib, who are what is called 'pre-born'. They are born with the memories of ancestors going back millennia, which obviously gives them a different outlook on life and the universe. A short summary just doesn't do things justice. After polishing off the first third or so of God Emperor of Dune, Children of Dune is just a mere set-up novel to the later layers of story. Again, I cannot stress the profundity and overall amazing concept of the Dune saga. It is dry and almost boring in tone, like C-Span, but the content more than makes up for it, unlike C-Span.

Perhaps that's so (about Dune's characters not being intended to be loved by readers), but I find it hard to really connect with a novel if I don't connect on some level with the characters. And it wasn't just the characters I couldn't connect with, but also the story in general. I had read very little scifi at that point (and haven't read a ton since), so I'm probably not a good judge of the genre. I guess the detached tone isn't for me — but it's great that you're enjoying the series so much, DP!

Ha, you and my husband should have a chat about basketball. He's not quite so down on it as you are, but I think you make some valid points {/pun}

I'm almost done with God Emperor of Dune, the tone gets more severe, but the observations of government and religion get even more severe. 'Scratch a conservative and you will find a person afraid of any future, scratch a liberal and you will find a closet aristocrat.' Herbert was clearly fed up with Cold War politics and all the threats of the era, but the observations are still valid. A character that has the memories of every person who lived before him at his fingertips, every good and bad idea, heroic act or villainous treachery, combined with thousands of years of lifespan to contemplate how to set up a better future for humanity as a whole is a pretty intriguing idea.

For anyone interested, the Tigers are on ESPN tonight at 7 against the Rays, as well as the Fox Saturday game of the week at 4 (check your local listings) and Sunday Night versus the Red Sox. My Tigers have been devastated by injuries this week, Inge has a broken hand, Magglio Ordonez a broken ankle and Carlos Guillen with another pulled muscle. They are scrambling and some talented young players are vying for playing time. Jason Worth at SS is fine, some of the rest are questionable. Miguel Cabrera is on a major hot streak (again) and has his BA over .350 and accounts for over 31% of his teams RBI, leading the majors. Tune in if you like sports, it'll be interesting.

Also, I'm collecting nicknames for my friend Scott, who talks a lot. He bogs down dart games most notably. 'Is it my turn?' 'Of course it is Talky McTalkerson.'
We have that one, Chitty Chatty Blah Blah and Talker Texas Ranger. Any other good zingers would be appreciated.

I really like Talker Texas Ranger!

When I finally started Dune, I was remembering the ending of one of the sequels. I was halfway through the book before I realized that I really did not remember how this one ended. What a terrific read!

Mack Brown was on ESPN all day -- and through the whole College Football Live. We have a tough start to the year. Nebraska is loaded for bear. Yikes!

My nickname for a talker is Chatty Cathy from the doll by that name when I was a kid. (I never did have one.) But not a good name for Scott, I don't think.

Are the Bengals going to take TO? Are they crazy?
--BJ

I've called him Chatty Cathy, but never knew it was from a doll. I was assuming it was a character from a tv or old radio show, honestly. And somehow I knew you would sniff out Mack Brown. I personally saw him on five different sets wearing at least two different Longhorns shirts, one orange and one black.

Texas does seem to have a challenging schedule after the warm-up games. I'm sure you'll be at the Rice game. Nebraska has a pretty lame non-conference schedule, I'm sick of it. Western Kentucky (new to 1A, but a 1AA powerhouse), Idaho (this one makes sense), at Washington (tough game) and then South Dakota State. Actually it's not that bad of a schedule, but why play the Jackrabbits from 1AA, let's roll over Georgia or Boston College instead. Challenge yourself a bit more, games like SDSU only lead to overconfidence and injuries. Zac Lee is returning at QB, that's nice. October 16 better be a nationally telecast game, I'd like to see some red on the burnt orange Texas uniforms. After this season the Nebraska regional TV games will be shown in my Big 10 area instead of the Big 12 region. But, if I have to sit through a Wisconsin-Ohio State game instead of Nebraska-Texas this year...

Side note, former Nebraska Heisman winner Turner Gill takes over as Kansas head coach this year and only plays his old school once before they leave the conference. After a quick wikipedia check, he was 28-2 as a QB, 20-0 in Big 8 play, but never won a national title. He threw the two point conversion pass in the Orange Bowl against Miami that was tipped away, giving Miami a title and a 31-30 win. That game, as well as the Orange Bowls before that are why I'm a Nebraska fan to this day.

And my Tigers got no-hit last night on ESPN, what a slap to the face. Nobody in the world would have hit Garza's fastball in that game, but the negative press up here, which was already excessive, should reach new heights of negativity. I wish these Tiger fans who do nothing but whine and complain would just go root for the Yankees. They have a 1970's style team with great defense and several light hitting players, but Jim Leyland refuses to play the required style of ball having those types of players requires. That's what I'm mad about. I don't go around saying they should cut this guy or that guy, or making up nicknames like Danny Worth(less). Having our end of duelling no-hit games broken up on a grand slam by a former Tiger (Matt Joyce) really hurt, almost as much as loading the bases without giving up a hit. And I had issues with the umpiring, as usual. It was the same crew (Gary Cederstrom's crew) that we had problems with in Atlanta. Oh well, Ted Williams might have had a chance to hit Garza last night, he's about it, so I'll let it go.

P.S. I wish there was an overseas league that TO could go play in, all he will do in Cincinnati is take plays away from their young guys, like your boy Shipley. As a Browns fan (and now a Colt McCoy fan, yikes) I hope he (TO) implodes their team, like he's done everywhere else he has played in. I have been forgetting to see who the Texas guys are on the Browns. There's at least one on every team in the NFL, it seems. I knew McCoy, of course and the kicker Phil Dawson. I had forgotten that Shaun Rogers was a Texas guy, assuming he's still on the team after his gun-in-the-airport-security-line-on-accident arrest. That's it.

Also, bad info on Sunday Night Baseball. Dodgers-Giants, not Tigers-Red Sox.

I am going to look for a job soon, but I have to wait until after the UT-Rice game because we already have the tickets, and I can't work that weekend. I am hoping that I will be able to find one then. I am going to wear both UT and Rice colors. Mostly I will root for UT though.

Nebraska is pulling out all stops on ads for the game in October. Will they have a better offense this year? Our team is a bit up in the air. Personally, I think if we could ever get an O-Line working, we could be pretty good. But new quarterback and no O-Line is not a good combination.

Interesting to hear about the Kansas coach. I was wondering what they were doing. Sounds like he will be pretty good. Do you think OU and Nebraska will schedule each other in the non-conference games like we did with OU for the sake of the old rivalry? I always hear about how disappointed they were not to play each other every year.

I am getting a little tired of the New York Yankees myself. All we see is that team on tv highlights it seems. Of course, they must have a ton of fans.
--BJ

TO is a trouble-maker for sure.

I forgot to tell you. Chatty Cathy was a doll where you pulled the string out at the back of the neck and she would talk. She had several different phrases. Very popular in the late 60s or early 70s, I think.
--BJ

All I know about Nebraska is that they have quite a few returning players, whereas Texas has more new guys. That can go either way. I always laughed when I'd read that some team had '19 returning starters', or 'They have the entire o-line returning.' Is that good if those players were awful? Not that either team is awful, just an observation that has served me well over the years.

I do hope Nebraska and Oklahoma continue to play. I miss them playing early on the day after thanksgiving, it has been replaced by Neb. vs Colorado for a long time now.

Last night ESPN showed their highlight package of the Yankees-Indians game. They showed A-Rod popping out, an Indians runner safe at the plate on an A-Rod throwing error, more A-Rod, the Indians turning a double play, yet more A-Rod failing, then showed the box score. No mention of how the Indians won 4-1 at all. Pretty typical.

45. God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert
The Dune series rolls along, not too many surprises in this installment, but simply a great tale. Actually somewhat plodding and there is very little action, but still...

Individually, the sequels aren't as great as Dune proper as solo works, but I consider series books like this as one story in essence, and a awesome one at that. Dune as a standalone is exemplary, however.

Looking at the cover, I am thinking that this might have been the last one I read back in the 80s. Still not sure what I am going to do about reading the sequels yet. So I am glad that you are posting on them.
--BJ

Isn't there a TV series adaptation of Dune? I haven't seen it, but it's been recommended to me (and I guess it has a fantastic score to boot). Might be worth looking into.

There are two. An older one from about 1980 or a bit later, which is great I've been told. Starring Sting, Patrick Stewart and, sadly, one of the husbands on Desperate Housewives as Paul Atreides. There is a later series of some sort by the SciFi cable station, but nobody that I know has seen it. It was hugely popular and well received as I recall. Wikipedia should help you track down any details you need to rent/steal/aquire either, but I would recommend the original.

46. Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert
Much more action here, my complaint being that the reader is simply a blind witness to a plan unfolding behind the scenes. Every new scene has, surprise, surprise, a pre-planned encounter. There was no real sense of watching a plan evolve and come to fruition, just idly watching from the background with no involvement or trying to decipher the plot. Still, however, the great story continues on. Very satisfying and a page turner nonetheless, really ramps up the excitement for Chapterhouse: Dune, the final Frank Herbert volume.

A bit further on Heretics of Dune...
The previous book, God Emperor of Dune examines the possibilities of manipulating history and mythology to produce results in a moderately distant future, which, by the way, is a specialty of the Bene Gesserit, as evidenced by their creation of the myths that led to the possibility of Muad'Dib way back in Dune. Heretics takes a different view of this phenomenon, exploring the duelling emotions of love and hate and their effects on a society. This includes misplaced sexual desires and all sorts of other thingsThe lessons even go back to Dune again, in the way that Jessica let her love for Duke Leto override her duties as a Bene Gesserit, and their strict and emotionless, or at least Spock style logical, breeding program. This emotion caused her to have a boy instead of a girl, who eventually became Paul Muad'Dib, whose son Leto II is the focus of Children of Dune and is the God Emperor of the next book after. The Dune series continues to satisfy on several levels, if you like complexity and extremely well thought out stories.

Also, the White Sox/Tigers game is on ESPN tonight at seven bells. The pitching matchup is Edwin Jackson versus Armando Galarraga. Jackson is a former Tiger, traded to Arizona in the off-season last year where he pitched a no-hitter about the end of June. He threw 149 pitches which is the most ever in a no hit game. The Tigers got him in the first place from Tampa for Matt Joyce, the outfielder who broke up Max Scherzer's no hit bid last week on ESPN. And facing him is Galarraga of what the local media is now referring to as the '28 out perfect game'. Tonight the team is giving out commemorative posters of that game.

You have to be a true nerd to enjoy both Dune and baseball this much.

Just stopping by to say Hi!

I saw Kirk Herbstreit (sp?) say that the Big 10 is the next best conference after the SEC. And apparently Joe Pa will never ever retire. But maybe Favre will. And Nebraska and OU are tops in the Big 12. And I heard that UT is scheduling a home and away with Notre Dame, my next fav team. It is too hot to do anything, but football season is almost here. :)
--BJ

Hi all.
Favre is just skipping the two-a-day practices, because who would want to do that in this heat? It's not even that hot up in Michigan, nothing like the south. I call it fairly hot and a bit humid. Pretty sure that's how Herbstreit is spelled, I was subjected to the 'Law Firm' of Herbstreit to Stabelein at Ohio State many many times.

Excited to see what football brings, especially since my Tigers are apparently not going to do it this summer. Leyland-ball just doesn't cut it. That's where you always have plenty of baserunners, but never do anything to score the runs. Like hit and run or simply stealing a base, sacrifice bunts, you know, baseball stuff. Instead we get lots of double plays and lots of runners stranded. And lots of losses with one run, like last night on ESPN for everyone to see.

Let's just leave the bases loaded in the first inning today. Cute. Leyland and his staff need to go. They are the common denominator over a bad four years of underachieving. He took over Alan Trammel's team which was finally decent when he was fired wrongly, backed it in to a World Series in 2006 that was literally thrown away to a mediocre Cardinals team who had the worst record to ever win the championship. Then, two severe disappointing years, last year they floundered at the end of the year as the Twins went 21-3 to finish the season, forcing a tie and a one game playoff. The three losses were to the Tigers. That game encapsulated everything that went wrong all season, which would require another paragraph, and the Twins went to the big playoffs. Now this year is more of the same, only with less hitting. Both of our catchers are well below .200 as an example, and it's a rare night if they strand fewer than ten runners. I like Rick Knapp, the new pitching coach. He was stuck in the Twins system as a minor league coordinator and came over to Detroit this season. He had a big part in developing pitcher after pitcher for the Twins, but was just not going to get the Major League job with that organization and their long-standing staff. Most of the Twins staff have been there since the late 1980's.

Sweet. Let's go ahead and leave two on in the second after two weak popouts with ducks on the pond. Sack the runner over to third and he scores on that crap. Dammit Jim!

Lairdy might be batting .190 but he's thrown out two runners stealing today. I still like that guy. He had such a rotten start pounding the ball and not getting hits that he felt compelled to change his number. How often do you hear that?

Wow, I never heard of anyone wanting to change numbers. Hoping for better things for him now.

I don't watch much NFL, but last night after getting home from our exhausting trip I sort of watched the Dallas - Bengals game. I used to be a huge Dallas fan, but I am not really one anymore. TO and Ochocinco (cannot even say 85 in Spanish!) plus PacMan all on one team! Yikes! It was pretty boring, but did you happen to see Shipley run the punt all the way back to the 2? If only he had had blockers!!! And how interesting that the two quarterbacks are brothers. It really confused me with the way they looked alike and had the same name on the jerseys. Until the commentators discussed it, I thought I was just not paying enough attention and they were the same person. :)
--BJ

Laird needs to go on a tear just to see if they can catch up. Him and about half of the team. In a move just to make me mad, Carlos Guillen is eligible to play again so they sent Will Rhymes down to Toledo. He was the best thing to happen to the Tigers since June. Excellent second base, contact hitter perfect for the number two spot in the lineup, and great hustle. I guess we don't need that guy, but the original Sack-a-Toledo, Ryan Raburn, still has a spot even though he is a hack in the outfield. He has naked pictures of somebody. Actually he gets a big hit about three times a month to keep his job.

Cedric Benson has had a few run-ins with the law over the years as well, that's partly why the Bears gave up on him. Notably a drunken boating citation. I watched about five plays, one of which was Shipley running a route a yard short of a first down leading to a punt. If it weren't the first week of camp I'd say it was a typical Bengals move, but I will chalk it up to inexperience for now. The Bengals always fold in clutch situations. Always. I've seen it happen since Super Bowl XVI in 1982. That was the 1981 season and the Bengals find a way to blow it. A key missed block to get their QB knocked out, missed field goals, defensive collapse, whatever. I can't wait to watch their soap opera this year.

I have finished Chapterhouse Dune and will finish the post later. My nephew wants to sort some baseball cards.

It looked to me like Shipley ran beyond the first down marker, but he had to run back to get the pass which was too short.

You are really plowing through the Dune books at top speed.
--BJ

47. Chapterhouse: Dune by Frank Herbert
The last few Dune books had a general theme to examine. This one's theme was simply power and planning in the realm of politics. Again, the Bene Gesserit hatch an obscure plan to achieve their goals. This time, the goal is the elimination of the rival Honored Matres (as opposed to the Revered Mothers), a political entity returned from 'The Scattering' after the events in God Emperor of Dune. I try to avoid spoilers on my thread because I like to save surprises for prospective readers. This is a series where the consensus review are basically that Dune is a great book and the sequels are boring and awful. They are, well, boring isn't the right word, but they revolve around dialogue and obscure clues like a mystery novel, as opposed to action like in Dune proper. As such they come across as 'boring', but in reality are so full of wisdoms and observations that the sequels are rarely boring. They are a slow read, but nothing like The Name of the Rose, for example. The ending to Chapterhouse was quite a surprise to me and may serve as a springboard to read the few of the Brian Herbert / Kevin Anderson sequels in the future. I have garnered a few opinions around the chat threads here and they seem pretty universally disliked. However, they are based on the notes of daddy Frank (or so I've read), and I think will be worth reading for the story, if not the quality.

I'm going to do a stack of rereads starting with The Age of the Picts, which I have not read in about ten years. I loaned it to a friend, who loaned it to another friend who lost it. He claims it was in with a box of vinyl records that a friend of his stole while he was moving, along with a Rockford Files Theme 45 that he snagged at the Salvation Army store where he worked, believe it or not. I recall it as an eye-opening recap of what little information is available about the Picts. There are plenty of surviving items in the archaeological record, but the mystery is what actually happened to the people. Where did they go?

I love that you are reading all of the Dune books. After all the hassle with my library book, my younger daughter just had to have a copy to read. Then she finished while we were moving my older daughter. So we left the copy for her to read, as well. I wish I had just bought it to begin with as I could have read it in June, then.

The Age of the Picts looks pretty interesting. My older daughter especially would love that one.

So did you like The Name of the Rose? I have been meaning to read both that and Foucault's Pendulum.
--BJ

I did like The Name of the Rose quite a bit. It was very deep and detailed with a view of how it could have gotten too complicated. If you look long and hard at that view, you will see Focault's Pendulum drifting around in the fog. That book was too much at the time I tried starting it, but I will get around to reading it eventually. It is very very dense and packed with symbolic images to the point of saturation. TNotR is more digestible, still a complex book but workable. There has been some chat about Eco on Porua's 50BC.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will check it out.
--BJ

While I'm waiting for my coffee, I'll give a further example of Leyland ball that cost us a game last night again for the umpteenth time in the last four years. The Tigers are facing David Price, who started the All-Star Game, by the way, so runs are at a premium. Still no bunting, stealing or sacrifices to move runners in to scoring position. Let's pinch hit for Lairdy, who is 2-2 with a walk and an RBI. Johnny Damon strikes out on a pitch in the dirt and manages to look like a sissy in so doing, as usual. Eighth inning over, score 4-3 Rays. Now the Tigers have to bring in their backup catcher Avila who lets a passed ball get by, then the Rays score on a slap hit past the infield which was pulled way in to cut the run down at the plate. Add a single and the score is 6-3 Rays. Too many walks allowed, too many hits allowed trying to make up for called balls, no situational baseball on either side really. The Tigers almost never make the opponent do anything difficult to get outs, never put pressure on them. That sums it up, and puts Leyland ball to bed here. I just wanted to get that off my chest since it was brought up over the last week and figured I might as well make my point clearly. I watch this team play daily, and have missed only six or seven games all season out of over a hundred now and see this slop every day (54-58 = 112 games). Not using the tools at your disposal, not putting pressure on the opponent. End of story.

48. The Age of the Picts by W.A. Cummins
Just finished this little gem of a book. The author makes the most of the scanty evidence in existence about the Pictish nation in the Dark Ages of Scotland. Most of this consists of the Pictish Chronicles, two separate lists of kings, giving names and years of reign, corroborating data from the Ulster Chronicle of Ireland and the life of St. Columba (who was granted the isle of Iona by a Pictish king), as well as the king lists of both Wales and Scotland. Also used are relevant snippets of Bede, Nennius, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Not a lot, but some interesting conclusions can be inferred from them.

Most of the data covers the interaction between the Picts of the eastern two-thirds of 'Scotland' and the Irish Scotti tribe of Dalriada, roughly modern Argyll in western modern Scotland. After showing the validity of the Pictish Chronicle by comparing it against the Ulster Chronicle mostly using the dates of events in the life of St. Columba, the crux of the book lays out a rough outline of a probable history of a large nation of unknown people (as far as where exactly they came from), and a supposition as to where they went. As opposed to a fictional story, I have no problem throwing out a 'spoiler' to a history, so the author's theory is simply that the Picts never went anywhere. The key to this to my mind is the simple sentence 'Over the centuries, the English language had far more success than the English armies.' The different names applied to 'Pictavia' reflect the changes in language throughout the British Isles, and the Picts simply lost their language, slowly, to a more succinct and versatile English. Thus, they became referred to as Scots and so they became Scots, simple as that. Kenneth mac Alpin appears in both the Pictish Chronicle and the list of Scottish kings, and is referred to in various sources as both king of the Scots and King of the Picts. There is absolutely no reference to any mass defeat or extinction/exodus, so the simplest solution is that they never left and just merged in with the Scotti. Over this span, the region went from being called Pictavia to Alban to Fortren (a diplomatic name for an allied region against the Vikings) to Scotland.

All in all, quite a lot of information gleaned from scattered and lean sources. There is even a bit of discussion about Pictish standing stones and an attempt to understand, if not decipher the symbols on them. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of the British Isles, but probably pretty drab for someone who could care less.

So, did you happen to catch the golf tournament today? I was kind hoping poor Dustin Johnson would win. Is this the year for weird sports moments?
--BJ

I sure did. You just don't ground your club in any sand. My brother and I looked at each other the instant he grounded, before addressing the ball. That is the first time I have seen spectators standing in the bunker with a player, and I'd bet the last. Add that to his highest round ever by a 54 hole leader at the US Open (82) and it adds up to a weird year, just for DJ. Not to mention all of the other odd things that have happened. Some years just seem to have more of that sort of stuff.

P.S. I have seen a lot of Martin Kaymer this year. He is always in the top ten or twenty on the European PGA that we watch on Thursday and Friday mornings babysitting. No surprise there, I picked him as one of five or so guys who could win it after the second round.

He did look like he knew what he was doing. I had never heard of him before. I think that with all the emphasis on Tiger previously, I just never learned who else was out there. Still like Mickelson, though.

The Bengals looked good against Denver. I just can't root for Denver anymore after the whole Elway thing. But I did enjoy seeing Tebow run it in for a touchdown at the very end of the game.
--BJ

There are more amazing young golfers out there than I can ever remember. The problem is that they all look the same from a distance wit their perfect textbook swings and almost all of them are tall and lanky. No distinguishing characteristics like Arnie hitching up his pants while smoking a cigarette, Nicklaus turning his head from the ball to start his swing, Tom Watson's perfect reverse C that has not changed at all since 1970, on and on, down to John Daly's fat gut and now his lack of gut mixed with awful pants. And that doesn't even cover unique putting setups. All of these new guys look too much alike to me. Except Bubba Watson. Not only is he a lefty, but he has a huge looping long swing like Daly used to have, and a pink shafted driver to boot. That's character. So I can't fault you for not knowing who Dustin Johnson is. I follow pro golf far more closely than the vast majority of sports fans.

Side note, I was setting up my user settings at CBS Sportsline.com so I could just click on a little box to go directly to the Nebraska page without navigating through all of the the NCAA menus. The website is set up to shuffle news of your favorite teams to the top, but you can have it add a logo of a puking smiley face to the teams you hate as well. I didn't even put your Texas Longhorns on the Hated list, as I would have a few years ago. Look what you have done to me!

You make me so happy! (Nebraska is really talking about that game with UT.)

I always kind of liked John Daly, even though his life was always a mess. Maybe Tiger could get some advice from him.
--BJ

I'm not sure if it's your doing or the fact that Colt McCoy is the future of the Browns. And Tiger needs more help from his mother than John Daly.

Good point.

I heard that Colt had two interceptions and hit his hand on a helmet in his debut. We could not get the game on tv. One thing about Colt: he is the hardest working person ever. I saw some practice highlights of UT today and there was his brother throwing and running the ball. I knew that Gilbert was not much on scrambling. Case looked like Colt. There was a lot of bragging by the O-line. If they had asked my advice, they would not brag. They would make sure that their playing speaks for itself. But maybe I am too harsh.

I also haven't been able to see how Bradford is doing. He had lots of help with O-line at OU.

Who are you going to root for when Michigan plays Nebraska?
--BJ

I'm not big on bragging either, except when Nebraska pounds on Michigan. My friends will hate me that day, almost as much as they are hating Rich Rodriguez right now. I can't recall them playing other than that Alamo Bowl several years ago when UM had that goofy lateral play. I'm sure you remember it, the Michigan guy was tackled and fumbled after several laterals, players on both teams ran on the field for some reason even though UM picked up the loose ball and lateraled it around some more and almost scored a touchdown with about fifty players on the field. That was in the doldrum years of Bill Callahan making a mess of the program with his wussy west coast offense.

I'm used to not getting the Browns games on TV and I'm a lot closer to Cleveland than you are. The NFL prefers it if local stations carry the closest team to them, which means we used to get Browns games when the Lions played at 4 PM or were out west or, miracle of miracles on Monday night. Now we get Colts games almost every time.

49. The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey
I received this through the early reviewers program and enjoyed it quite a lot. There are two intermixed stories in the book, one is the science of abnormally huge waves on the ocean and the other is a look in to the world of tow surfing. Tow surfing is where the riders are pulled on a jet ski to the waves rather than paddling like in a Beach Boys song, allowing them to get to much bigger waves. There is quite a discussion about certain sites that have perfect reef conditions for creating huge waves around the globe, Australia, off of California and Mexico, Ireland and, of course, Maui. The author tags along on several trips to these places and does a great job of conveying the awe and power of the waves. The science part is not that difficult, mostly plain language interviews and references to researchers and what aspects of advanced non-linear maths and physics they are using to study the creation and propigation of waves.

I have spent many hours sailing around the Great Lakes and the most fascinating thing to me was the waves and how they actually moved. Logic tells you that the water moves along as a unit, but in reality, the water bobs up and down as the wave energy rolls along. Toss a paper cup (if you are a litterer) or a stick in to the waves sometime, or watch forlornly as a hat blows in the water. It will ride up the front of the wave, flop around briefly at the top, then serenely slide down the back without much lateral movement at all. There are old sailor's tales about every seventh wave being the biggest, but this might be a Great Lakes thing. Very thought provoking stuff.

The book is well written and engaging, written in a lively, conversational tone. The chapters alternate between the two storylines and keep the pace flowing without bogging down or becoming stale. I enjoyed it very much, and might go so far as to call it a book about science for people who would never read a book about a scientific topic.

I am currently well in to Fingerprints of the Gods, which I have not read in about a decade. My old copy has been loaned out to several people who had it for a year or more at a time, and is currently in Chicago with a friend making the rounds there. I recently bought a new copy, but I miss my old self annotated version. Also I had marked several books in the bibliography for further reading, but I probably have picked up most of them by now.

The book is an examination of several independent threads of evidence of a highly developed technological culture that predates our current view of history, which came to some sort of an end at the end of the last Ice Age. It examines the myths of South America which were irreparably crippled by the Spanish Conquistadores and the Catholic priests who came with them ( they collected everything they could find and burned the scrolls and melted the metals down into ingots), the remarkable 'coincidences' of world wide flood myths, the prehistory of Egypt, and so on. It does pose more questions than it really answers, but it is a treasure trove of information. Many of those questions are returned to and 'answered' in Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization, also by Graham Hancock.

Many scientists and archaeologists have tried to deconstruct Hancock's theories, and I'm sure parts of it can be, but isn't there a 'preponderance of evidence' scenario in the court system? It certainly applies here.

So are you watching the replay of the Big 12 Championship game? My husband is watching it, but I can't. It made me ill the first time I saw it. Was Suh more irreplaceable or McCoy and Shipley?
--BJ

Oh, yeah, and the worst part is listening to Brent Musberger. Will he never retire?
--BJ

Musberger still has work for the nostalgia of it. Who's nostalgia I have no idea, nor why he's some 'legendary' announcer. The only thing I can ever remember him saying was just yelling FUMBLE! He's no Keith Jackson. He was the host of the old NFL live show on CBS with Jimmy the Greek ages ago to his credit, and Irv Cross.

I like Keith Jackson. And I like Herbstreit, too. Chris Fowler is ok.
--BJ

Have you heard of Count Belisarius by Robert Graves? Or Moonfleet by J. Meade Falkner?
--BJ

I've read Moonfleet, and liked it.

Never heard of Moonfleet or JM Falkner. Count Belisarius, however, is something I would like to track down. Robert Graves is one of those authors who has a way with language and everything by him is probably outstanding, at least at an academic level. It might not be a fun or entertaining read, but it will be well put together. From what I gathered from the reviews of LB, it is purposely written in an archaic style. That may not be your cup of tea. His Anger of Achilles is a very dense novelization of The Iliad that was difficult to follow without a decent level of competency in Homer's original. Everything I have read by him was like walking into a plush mansion with marble floors and wainscoting, oak beams and regal furniture. It might not be to your tastes exactly but it is always opulent.

I was out with friends last night and missed any chance at re-watching that game. On a normal night it would have been perfect as there was no reason to watch the re-air of the Tigers getting clubbed by the Yankees. Hard to say who is more irreplaceable, I'm assuming you mean this season. Suh was a man amongst boys like I haven't seen since the Ray Lewis, Jesse Armstead, Rohan Marley and Jerome Brown Miami team. He was so dominant that I'm actually excited for a Detroit Lions season for the first time since Billy Sims played. That's pretty irreplaceable but you can get away with pretty good at defensive line, and Suh was a once a decade talent, if even that often. Replacing a veteran QB/WR combination like that is much harder to do, especially if they seem to have some kind of telepathy going on.

Since we are getting close to football time, I'll stick a link to CBS Sportsline's weekly schedule here. They list all of the games in D1 with national/regional TV coverage. Pretty handy. Two weeks from yesterday to kickoff weekend and there are actually a few interesting games that Thursday, USC at Hawaii late and Southern Miss at the other USC down in Dixie.

Your Rice vs. Texas game is on ESPN simultaneous with UConn vs. Michigan that Saturday. You will be at the game I'm sure, and I shall be watching UM on TV, somewhat rooting for UConn. Rich Rodriguez just doesn't fit with what the Wolverines ought to do. It's like sparkly paint on an old pickup truck and most fans want him gone, along with his spread offense and even more ridiculous soft zone defense. You may have success and popularity at West Virginia with that junk but 55-45 games don't fly at The Big House. You can't fit scores like that in a lunch pail.

here

I like this picture better. It has a list of the 23 All-American O-Linemen since the start of the Bo Schembechler era in 1969. Not much emphasis on that with RichRod as the line is too busy pass blocking.

here

50. Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock
I have mentioned above that this book is rife with tidbits of information about a likely human culture that existed before what is currently called the Dawn of History in Mesopotamia/Egypt. Hancock does a great job of linking the innumerable 'coincidences' that crop up in mythology from around the world, mostly in the extensive and consistent flood myths. Specific things like the releasing of three birds to test for suitability of leaving the ark, and exact numbers used to calculate precession. This is the same phenomenon that causes the various Ages to roll along. From Taurus to Aries, we are now towards the very end of Pisces on the cusp of the Age of Aquarius. Nothing really to do with horoscopes and astrology, just marking where the sun rises on the spring equinox. Now, this is the bone that many scholars choose to pick with Hancock and other thinkers along this line. How could 'primitive' man have ever noticed such a thing, not to mention incorporated specific numbers into mythology taught to the commoners? By incorporating the ideas into myths and stories about a mill or grindstone of some sort, with the axle representing the earth's poles. When the mill of the heavens breaks, the result is usually pain. This breaking is when it turns its way in to a new age of the sun.

Well, if you are a member of a culture of long standing (Homo sapiens sapiens have been around for a minimum of 500,000 years), things like the stars becoming unaligned over time tends to be noticed. Even after a few generations, an astute farmer can notice that the stars don't line up with certain markers on the horizon that his great grandfather used to establish the growing seasons. The amount of drift can be estimated, and appreciated, by holding your pinkie finger out at arms length. That width is close enough to exactly one degree of arc at the horizon, and is less than the width of the moon. It takes 72 years for the stars to slip backwards, or retrograde, this one degree, and 72 is one of those numbers that pops up in mythology. One example is the 72 conspirators with Set who tricked Osiris in to climbing in to a coffin. Some other numbers that pop up are 2160 (72 x 30, the years for the sun to move through one sign of the zodiac), 4320 (2160 x 2), 12 and 30 (the months and days in a month) 360, and 25,920 (2160 x 12 zodiacal 'months').

These numbers were disseminated throughout the world somehow, and often with a dog in the story to guide the enlightened thinker to the pertinent information. That is even more interesting to me, the dog thing. Even Samson in the Book of Judges brings the central pillar of the 'temple' crashing down. Somewhere in there he is associated with 300 foxes. I would not mind having this bit clarified, as well as any other appearances of dogs of any sort in the Bible. I asked a friend about it a few years ago and all he could come up with was some story in the Apocrypha.

There is much more contained in Fingerprints, a study of ancient maps with anomalous accurate renderings of Antarctica with no ice (see Piri Reis map, Finnaeus and Buache, exploring the myths of South America and the Viracocha/Kukulkan/Quetzalcoatl figure, the Great Pyramid and associated myths from Egypt, and the theory of Global Crust Displacement. That theory is the possibility of the ice cap so unbalancing the whole earth that the entire crust breaks loose and rebalances itself in one big chunk, a contender for the sudden and inexplicable melting of the last Ice Age. If the ice were no longer at the pole then it would melt pretty quickly. A conclusion that the lost civilization was from a temperate climate Antarctica is a possibility, I suppose, but not necessarily the only answer. A later book by Hancock explores the sunken landmasses at the end of the Ice Age, when the sea levels rose hundreds of feet, often in only a few stages. If you look at a nice world map, the whitish areas of ocean around the continents approximately represent this sunken land. Who knows who lived there and what became of their descendants. It has been estimated that these areas comprised about 20 percent of the earth's land, and to this day 60 percent of the world population lives within 200 miles of the ocean.

Yay! Book number 50 since mid april.

Hooray!! You made!!! The last on sounds quite intersting!

Thanks. It is quite the interesting read, as are all of Graham Hancock's books. Underworld is the best and most thorough, Supernatural is very thought provoking, a thorough examination of altered states of conciousness and the impact of that topic on ancient history through shamanism and whatnot.

Congrats on reaching #50 already and for writing a terrific review. I was going to give you a thumbs up, but I did not see it posted on the book page.

Love the posters of the stadium and house of pancakes. I also thought that Suh looked like a once in a generation player.

I just got back from taking my daughter to Rice. She is going to play in the MOB (Mighty Owl Band) for the game, so she will have to stay for the entire game. Yea! That is good for me. We went to a U2 concert in Reliant stadium last year, and it was pretty nice. Cool despite outside temps, even with the top opened up. I can't wait to see Sam McGuffie play.

Thanks for the info on the books. I have been collecting books by Robert Graves, but I haven't read any of them yet. The Graves book is twice the price of the Falkner book, so I will have to save up for that one.

Well, off to find some Advil for my back after all that moving. :)
--BJ

Hey DP! Congrats on book #50! Fingerprints of the Gods sounds very interesting.

Thanks everybody. I should probably move over to the 75 BC threads but does it really matter? I apparently read 50 books in eight or nine months. Simply going along in groups of 50 seems to keep the thread length to a reasonable amount of posts, but maybe more people would find my thread in the 75 BC. The 50 BC has over twice as many members though.

I think I will copy-paste some of my reviews to the book page. Why not. I actually read them to get an idea about new books and authors. That's what they are for, even though I sometimes disagree strongly with them. For example, the Dune sequels were almost unanimously neutral at best and many were outright negative, but I was quite impressed with them. Lots of philosophy but not much action. Just the sort of thing to bore the average McDonalds loving, impatient I-want-it-now types that can barely read a Hardy Boys mystery or Golf Digest. Stopping to think about a sentence or paragraph is just too much work apparently. For one, I fail to see why I would waste my time reading something that was just pure pap, thoughtless spoon feeding time wasting stories. If I don't say 'Hmmm' every so often (or at least think it) then the book just isn't worth reading. End of rant.

Ten days until the Thursday games on college football kickoff weekend, twelve until that Saturday, with a fantasy football draft sandwiched in between on Friday. And Fingerprints has been pasted over to the review page.

I think that you would like the 75 Book Challenge. :) They do run the threads on a calendar year, so the group would move to a new group in January. They also have some interesting group reads over there.

I did read someone who loved all the Dune sequels (except I think for the ones done by the son) on the Science Fiction Fans group. There was a thread discussing four different scifi series. One of them was Ringworld? or something like that that I had never heard of. I mostly just lurk over there. And only sometimes. Have you ever heard of Ringworld? What did you think of it?
--BJ

If I don't say 'Hmmm' every so often (or at least think it) then the book just isn't worth reading. End of rant.

*like* (oops, this isn't Facebook!)

I have read that thread, it was a good one with several good suggestions. It's this one, for anyone who would like to go through it.

Somehow I have not read much Niven. I have a small stack of his books including all four of Ringworld. The only one I have actually read is The Magic Goes Away, and a nice fully illustrated copy at that. A great short novel about how magic has drawn so much of a planet's life force that it is on the verge of becoming a lifeless desert. This story is more famous in nerd circles as the basis of the Magic the Gathering card Nevinyrral's Disc, the magic eating ultra power card from the early years of that game. Not the best art, but it is mighty. That company kind of overdid the spelling a name backwards to make up a fantasy name. On the topic of that company, Wizards of the Coast, the idea for the Dark Sun campaign for Dungeons and Dragons is the same concept. The draining of life essence has created a desert world there as well. Dune is the best and most well thought out desert world of all, though.

Now that I think about it, I read The Mote in God's Eye and its sequel The Gripping Hand years ago, I would probably think more highly of them all these years later. Not that they were bad, but I have developed more of a liking for technical scifi since then.

I'd bet that I read the Ringworld series by Christmastime or so, I can see getting back into the Greeks for a few months and then needing a break from it by around then. Right now I am in the early stages of Hamlet's Mill, a truly unique work examining the scientific knowledge conveniently frozen in mythology from around the world. After a quick and dirty fantasy series, the Moonshae books from the Forgotten Realms of D&D, the Greeks are back on the agenda. The Landmark Thucydides at that.

So can you explain Landmark Thucydides to me? I heard that there will be a group read of that next year. I am only familiar with The Peloponnesian War.

I look forward to seeing what you think of Ringworld. I might try to go back and read that Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand book this fall. I did not really give it enough of a try. And I never read Door into Ocean either. I just never could locate it.
--BJ

First off, don't read Stars in my Pocket. There were some (as in three) interesting passages but the sum total of everything offered was less than zero. Way less. There was a good chapter where the characters (one's name was Mark, I think, and the other I could care less) go 'dragon hunting' where they link minds with the dragon and experience the thrill of flight, but other than that, nothing. There was some sort of conflict between two alien governments that was very interesting to me, but was ignored in the confusing and pointless ending. Part of the problem is that Delaney was planning to write a sequel that never happened, I believe he put the existing ending on that story with the intention of continuing it. His Babel-17 sounds much more interesting and bought a cheap copy of a 1960's Ace paperback of it after reading Stars in my Pocket. Delany definitely is a talented writer, maybe too talented.

The Landmark Thucydides is the classic Crawley translation with extensive commentary and profuse maps exactly where needed to clarify the text. I'm excited about reading it as it should be more accessible than just reading the translation.

Thanks for all the info. It seems to me that someone who plans a sequel needs an ending that makes people want to come back for more. By the way, the last time I was at the bookstore, I looked for the Rothfuss sequel. Still not available. Really this is too long to wait for a book that was supposedly already written.
--BJ

I've given up 'waiting' on it. When the trilogy is done, i will make plans to get it. Until then, there are plenty of other books to keep me occupied.

And football, one week from tomorrow. Apparently the Big 10 bigwigs and muckity-mucks are having their annual meetings today and tomorrow. They are trying to figure out and then vote on a divisional play setup for next season. Will they do it geographically, East and West or North and South? Looking at it on an actual map I doubt it, they would have to split up in-state rivalries or UM-Ohio State. How about the way the ACC did it with arbitrary Atlantic and Coastal divisions to keep as many of the main rivalries together as possible? Will they make exemptions for inter-divisional rivalries to continue every season like the SEC? Tennessee and Alabama still play on the third saturday in October every year. Or the Big 12 route with a one on and one off schedule between the divisions? Oklahoma and Nebraska used to play early the day after Thanksgiving, but that game was replaced with Neb. versus Colorado, now the hated Sooners only play Nebraska every other year, every fourth year in Lincoln.

A decision would be nice, just because I hate idle speculation with no data to infer from. I really don't care, other than it would be nice if Nebraska was in the same division as Michigan, but I'd bet that either MSU or Ohio State are in different divisions from U of M. OSU and UM in one, MSU and Penn State in the other.

I haven't put up a picture lately.

Wouldn't it be odd for UM and MSU not to be in the same division?

I saw the Big 12 show on ESPNU. That channel has really come a long way since the early days. What on earth was Bo Pelini talking about saying how much he loved the Big 12? It was kind of bizarre.

More controversy in the world of golf.

I have been getting a few hints about the MOB's (Mighty Owl Band) take on UT. I love that band. And I can't wait to see my daughter play the violin in it. She said her jacket part of her uniform is so big she belongs on stage with the Talking Heads. I cannot wait until Game Day!!!

You know, the Big 12 is trying to figure out if they will have a championship game or play everyone.

Nice photo.
--BJ

From what I have gathered the Big 10 will go to a 9 game conference schedule which would leave plenty of room for an annual rivalry game outside of the divisional play. Ohio State and UM will apparently be in opposite divisions. The Ohio State president or AD or whatever his title is likes it because they will have a chance to beat Michigan twice. They are still debating about whether to even have a championship game however. Logic would keep in state rivalries together. For the record the Pac 10 has used a 9 game conference schedule for as long as I can remember so that each team plays all of the schools in the conference. I have a feeling that within a few years the Big 12 will add a few teams and return to the 12 team format, say TCU or Houston, UTEP or whatever

About Pelini, first off, when was the interview recorded. Not that I care much but it could have been before the breakup. Secondly these coaches (and everyone involved really) almost always gives little soundbite answers that are always positive and happy. It's pretty rare for a coach to say that something sucks. I almost never pay attention to interviews like that, it just paints a rosy picture of something in sports that is, in reality, not that rosy.

The older I get the more I like those college bands. Seeing the UM band almost cover the field last year was pretty neat and the halftime show was the 1969 marching band reunion. They were amazing too. It's much funnier to watch some almost 60 year old ladies whipping batons around like they still did it every day. I can honestly say that I have never seen a violin (or fiddle) in a marching band, must be a Texas thing. Awesome.

The violin in the band is a Rice thing. They don't really march. Just kind of move around. And they do skits. It is totally different. But she has to adjust the music for the violin, it was standard band music -- whatever that is. My older daughter mentioned that I might see my younger daughter on the jumbotron when they show the band, because it is not that big.

The Pelini interview was post-breakup. I think you are probably right.

The Southwest Conference had 9 teams, I think, and everyone played everyone else. I kind of liked it. I never really thought about UTEP. Interesting. I would like to have Rice back, but I doubt that would happen.

I just saw a bit on Brian Kelly on ESPNU, so I was wondering what you thought ND would do. I see they play Michigan the second game. And USC last. They say his offense uses speed and stamina that will take a while to develop. Like 2 years. Plus, he (Kelly) made some sort of comment about his players being self-centered rather than team-centered. I bet that did not go over too well with the players.

I guess you saw the most famous football game featuring a band. I think it was Stanford-Cal.

Only one more week to go! Yes!
--BJ

I hate to admit this, but an executive decision has been made. Hamlet's Mill is just not what I'm in the mood for right now. Awesome concepts about the continuity of myths aside, it just is too boring right now. I have read it twice before and I'm not sure what I have to gain by a third visit. And I really do not feel like reading Hamlet either, even though I should.

It does an exemplary job of examining the Hamlet/Amlodhi myths that migrated from ancient Persia to Finland, to be given to us in The Kalevala. The mill is the Sampo of the Kalevala, the quern that churns away through the various ages of the Earth. This mill is a central structure of most myth cycles around the world, always grinding away, always denoting the world axis and the progressions of the zodiacal ages, the 'four corners of the Earth' representing not the cardinal directions, but the positions of the equinoxes and solstices, the 'colures' in technical terms. As mentioned above in #161, there are a specific series of numbers carried along in these myths that are used to calculate the flow of these ages, and a dog of some sort to point the way is present in most.

The crux of the problem is simply this. Where did these stories come from? There is such an incredible amount of consistency in exact details between myths from around the world that they had to originate in one place, or at least from one culture. Where was that culture? And, more importantly to me, when was that culture?

So, I'm off to Toril of the Forgotten Realms, specifically the Moonshae Islands and the great story by Douglas Niles about the Earthmother and her children. They are under attack by an evil foreign god who wants the islands for himself and his minions. I read this trilogy something like fifteen years ago and consider them a pinnacle of the old TSR Dungeons and Dragons novels, of which there are literally almost a thousand, spread over several shared worlds. They feature a well developed realm based strongly on the Celtic religions of old Scotland, proper Druids and all that. There are sea monsters, viking style raiders, elven knights, trolls and orcs. All the good stuff that form the staples of a good D&D fantasy adventure. I'm curious to see if it is as entertaining as I remember, and I'd bet that it is. Douglas Niles is a good writer who doesn't get the credit he deserves from the general population of fantasy readers because most of his stories are considered to be in the 'pulp' sector and as such must be inferior. They are not. Is he a Tad Williams or a Tolkien, Robert Jordan or Robert Howard? Probably not, but I would rather read Niles than Jordan. So there. :P

Hey Billiejean, I missed your post above whilst I was typing #178. That old country band Alabama had a song about that, "If you're gonna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band..." The sad thing is that they are an old band now, when I was a kid/teenager Alabama just would not go away. The best thing about getting older is that I have watched hundreds of football games and probably over a thousand baseball games since I was in high school. That has to be worth something. I suppose I have read a few thousand books too.

Jim Leyland had a speech much like the Brian Kelly comments when he took over in 2006 and the Tigers rallied to the World Series that year. I actually believe that he backed in to the playoffs with Alan Trammel's team, the more Leyland made it 'his' team, the more they struggled. Still happening.

I think I will bounce over to the 75 BC when I finish up Darkwalker on Moonshae.

Wouldn't that be something if ND made it to the top 10!

Be sure to post a link to your new thread.

Thursday we start for Texas, and we are all excited about the game.
--BJ

Have you started a new thread yet? Still watching this one? I saw on College Game Day Final that Michigan had a great game against UConn. And next week is Notre Dame. We play Wyoming and they had that terrible accident.

Who do you think had the worse week -- Kansas or Ole Miss?
--BJ

What a great weekend of college football! Let's discuss it over on my new thread.