|
|
A couple notes before I head off to listen to the Stampede play for the Clark Cup championship:
- A CNN employee’s wishful thinking?
- Next month is the third annual Reading The World, in which independent booksellers promote international writers. We, of course, don’t have any participating bookstores but here’s a list of this year’s titles.
- This weekend SCOTUSblog is running a two part primer on detainees held by the U.S. military in the so-called war on terror.
- Recent profiles on two of my favorite authors: Philip K. Dick and Gore Vidal. (Via.)
- Jack McDevitt’s Seeker won the Nebula Award for best novel awarded by the Science Fiction and Fanasty Writers of America.
- The podcast Escape Pod is apparently again podcasting the Hugo Award nominees for best short story.
Nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be
“All You Need is Love,” The Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour
let’s talk hockey.
I know. Most of the U.S. is either basking in the return of baseball or watching NBA playoffs. But hockey season ain’t over (that’s a topic for another day) and there’s a couple items that have been on my mind.
First, of course, is to wish the Stampede good luck in the USHL frozen four this weekend. I think the new playoff format (a 7-game series against one time, a round robin of one game each against two other teams and then a single elimination final four) stinks but the Stampede have been playing great when it’s most important.
This year’s playoffs proved a theory I have been somewhat dubious about for years — that a fight can have more than a temporary role in hockey momentum. Early in the second period of the first game of the playoff series against the Lincoln Stars, the Stampede was down 2-1. Defenseman Stu Bickel took objection to some post-whistle blows delivered to forward David Solway. Bickel manhandled two, if not three, Stars to come to Solway’s defense and ended up dropping the gloves with one of Lincoln’s big defensemen. Bickel clearly dominated and you could see the attitude of both team s change. The Stampede tied the game 24 seconds later and outscored Lincoln, a perennial powerhouse, 17-1 through the end of game three and swept the series. There is no doubt in my mind that no matter my or anyone’s views on fighting in hockey, that was the turning point of the entire series.
Moving to the professional level, I want to give kudos to the Midcontinent cable system. Following the lockout, the NHL moved its television package to Versus (formerly the Outdoor Life Network). Although the system carried Versus before the NHL went there, now that this year’s conference finals have started, Midcontinent has added Versus to its package of high def channels so we can actually see the occasional Versus HD broadcasts in high def. This comes after adding a high def channel at the beginning of the playoffs for the NHL Center Ice package, which carries virtually all the NHL games. While I don’t have Center Ice now, I will next season.
There’s been reports from around the country about various cable systems cutting away from overtime in NHL playoff games or pre-empting the games and running infomercials. Midcontinent deserves a ton of credit for realizing there are hockey fans amongst its subscribers. Now I only hope the changes stay in place for next season.
You miss 100% of the shots you never take.
Wayne Gretzky
As I continue to catch up on things following my trip, more marginalia:
- I think it’s the DMV’s action that is “offensive . . . and not in good taste and decency.” Oh yes, let’s also mention potentially violative of the First Amendment. If the argument is that you can’t use state property for such a message, then I’m certainly going to be keeping an eye out for vanity plates promoting some religion.
- A short story by Kurt Vonnegut published in a SF magazine but never appearing in book form is now available at Project Gutenberg. (HT.) Published in 1962, the story explores a theme like that in “Welcome to the Monkey House,” a short story appearing in a collection of stories by the same name in 1968. In fact, it even uses some of the same phrases.
- The Quills, the supposed consumer vote book awards, have been revamped to limit the consumer votes to book of the year. (Via.)
- One of several items I intended to get up before leaving was to note that the National Book Critics Circle, of which I am a member, has launched a campaign against the trend to eliminate newspaper book review sections. There’s been quite a bit of press about that trend since the campagin began, although I must say I largely agree with Edward Champion’s thoughts on the subject insofar as the online book community is concerned, an issue also addressed in press coverage.
- I also failed to note before I left that it appears that limbo apparently is close to being abandoned at the Vatican. So does this mean the pagan babies who weren’t saved with our money in Catholic grade school decades ago will receive a “Get Out of Limbo Free” card?
Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see
“Strawberry Fields Forever,” The Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour
Having just returned from a combination business/pleasure trip to Washington, DC, leaves me behind and trying to catch up. I also didn’t avail myself of internet access for reasons noted below, so here’s a collection of random thoughts from the trip:
- Why is it the hotels in larger cities that charge you a couple hundred bucks a night for a room also want to charge $10 or more a day for internet access in your room and more than that for wireless access in meeting rooms? Hell, the Holiday Inn or Country Inn & Suites give you free wireless access in your room and in the common areas.
- A realizing my age moment: the young teen girl standing near us during the opening video at the Holocaust Memorial Museum (showing the discovery of the death camps by Allied solders) asking the leader of her group, “Is this real?”
- The pot or the kettle: the Jewish woman leading a group of middle school-aged Jewish children through the museum who told them Palestinians just copy Nazi propaganda to create hate for Jews.
- The Air & Space Museum never loses its appeal. It wasn’t on our list and I just intended to run in to look in the museum shop. My youngest daughter decided to tag along. Looking inside John Glenn’s Mercury capsule and seeing The Spirit of St. Louis above her was enough to send us back out to tell mom and sister to come in because she decided it was worth going through after all.
- The downside: the sampling of items from the Museum of American History at the Air & Space Museum that reminded us the former is closed until next year for renovation.
- New spot in DC that is near the top of the must sees: the American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery within.
- Certainly a sign of political (mis)fortunes: many of the souvenir shops we saw had as much, if not more, anti-Bush material than favorable items.
Better bring your own redemption when you come
“The Barricades of Heaven,” Jackson Browne, Looking East
Any serious reader of nonfiction must be saddened by the death of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author David Halberstam. I’ve read only a handful of his nearly two dozen books. Those I read, though, left no doubt about his talents.
The Best and the Brightest is certainly among the greatest, if not the greatest, one volume work on U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The Fifties is a highly readable account of a decade that was a more significant turning point in American history than many seem to realize. The Powers That Be is an incomparable look at the growth of traditional mainstream media, rendered somewhat dated now because of the advent of the 24 hour news networks and the Internet. And demonstrating his range, October 1964 will leave most American males my age captivated by names such as Mantle, Maris, Gibson and Brock battling in the World Series while at the same time examining the societal changes underway in America.
Halberstam not only has a new book coming out this fall, he reportedly was working on yet another at the time of his death. At the time of this post, at least two of his books, including The Best and the Brightest, showed dramatically increased sales (thousands of percent) at Amazon. I, too, will likely seek out Halberstam books I have not read. It’s sad, though, that it takes a death to move such an excellent author to the forefront of reading lists.
These days there’s all too much coverage of pesudo-events about extraordinarily inauthentic people doing inauthentic things.
David Halberstam, Vanity Fair, March 1998
|
Disclaimer 
Additionally, some links on this blog go to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. There is no additional cost to you. Contact me You can e-mail me at prairieprogressive at gmaildotcom.
|
