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Noted author Case Hope Long was executed by lethal injection this morning for a crime neither he nor anyone else could remember. Beforehand, he announced that his last words would be, “These are my last words.” Considered a master of the arcane form of recursive historical writing, Long’s last and possibly greatest work was a novel titled . . . → Read More: Case Hope Long Executed  I would pass here many times At the North Coast 24-Hour Endurance Run in September of last year, Newton Baker placed first in our mutual age group. I logged the second greatest amount of mileage in that age group, but wasn’t a registered USATF runner, so didn’t qualify to receive a medal for my achievement. Newton proceeded . . . → Read More: The Mettle to Medal As of July 25, 2011, I have migrated over 130 articles from my Neologistics blog, where since August 2005 I have posted many unsorted articles, including items unrelated to editing, writing, or literature. The articles copied from the old site have all been labeled with the category LEGACY. It has been a longstanding shortcoming of Google’s otherwise . . . → Read More: About Legacy Posts  Comments are closed  Arts, Baseball, Editing, Film, Humor, Language, Legacy, Literature, Music, Opinions, Quotes and Quips, Re: Views, Running, Sports, Squibblings, Stories, Technology, Thoughts, Usage, Writing Image via Wikipedia If it weren’t so annoying I’d laugh at the words written on my Honda gasoline-powered powersprayer’s engine. It says: EASY START One is led to conjecture they display this expression to convey a sense of contrast with the sort of gas-engine-powered tools that often require a combination of Olympic athleticism and incantations to foreign gods . . . → Read More: Easy Start Image via Wikipedia I had a dream last night about Queen Elizabeth II. Lovely woman, that one. She came to our locality for a visit, accompanied only by a male attendant, whom I presumed to be a personal secretary. She spoke at a function I was at, of undefined purpose. I walked a few steps behind her as she . . . → Read More: My Visit with Queen Elizabeth II Image by Getty Images via @daylife When I lived outside the tiny coastal town of Searsport, Maine, I had a nasty tooth problem and had to hightail it to a dentist. I knew of one in Belfast named — I’m not making this up — Dr. Blood, and his assistant was named Savage. . . . → Read More: Giving Away My Roots Long ago I considered running the Mickelson Trail Marathon. It sounded like a good race to me, and besides, I hadn’t run a regular marathon in years; but running it would have required me to travel from Arizona to South Dakota. When I proposed the idea to Suzy, her initial reaction was: . . . → Read More: Running Only Four or Five Hours Comments are closed Humor, Language, Legacy, Quotes and Quips, Running, Sports, Squibblings, Stories, Thoughts My At 9:00 a.m. on December 29, 2010, I began to run the 72-hour race at Across the Years. By 5:30 p.m., after completing only 81 laps (40.5 km, 25.166 miles), I was packed up and on my way to my friends’ house, to be their unexpected house guest for the next . . . → Read More: The Tempest Last spring our daughter Cyra-Lea wrote to ask if I’d be willing to pick out and run a half marathon with her this fall. I hadn’t done that sort of running for several years. My last half marathon race was in February, 2004, my last full marathon was in May, 2005, and . . . → Read More: Daughters Are Good — It was not until August 25, 2010, that I decided to run the 2010 North Coast 24-Hour Endurance Run (NC24) in Cleveland, Ohio. Up until the day before, I assumed that I would not be able to participate, and have done no ultramarathon training at all since 2008. The year 2010 has marked . . . → Read More: I Coulda Had a Medal My Grandma Newton had no automobile; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart A friend approached me one evening, an older (but not ancient) woman, wanting to know if she correctly understood what she had heard — that I had at one time been a professional photographer in New York City. Having no idea where she might have acquired such misinformation, I assured . . . → Read More: My Buddy Mozart Comments are closed Arts, Humor, Legacy, Music, Stories  Bob Dylan, George Washington, Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart On Saturday, December 12, I ran the Festivus 50K for the second time. The race is an out and back, mostly on the Olentangy River bike path, starting at its northern extremity in Worthington, Ohio, through the streets of downtown Columbus, where there’s currently a lot of construction and opportunities . . . → Read More: Festivus 50K 2009 The North Coast 24-Hour Endurance Run (NC24) in Cleveland, Ohio made a spectacular debut in its first edition on October 3–4, 2009. As host to the USA Track and Field/American Ultrarunning Association national championship, it drew a total of 107 runners: 82 men and 24 women. That the venue provides a fast course . . . → Read More: North Coast 24-Hour Endurance Run 2009 Image via Wikipedia Can you say “rubber baby buffer dumpers” ten times real fast? It is not without reason that this blog has not been updated regularly for the last year. I apologize to all zero readers who have missed it. Once an author being interviewed on NPR mused that the truly great authors, a group . . . → Read More: Rubber Baby Buffer Dumpers Now that school is back in session I'm hearing stories from parents of school age children about meeting their kids' teachers. News from the Land of Educationville is not good. Children of parents who neglect to take a personal hand in the education of their progeny have little hope for any sort of . . . → Read More: Life in Skool My seventh grade assistant principal’s name was Mr. Sniff. The man was as ludicrous as his name. As an underling administrator, Mr. Sniff’s primary duty was to render discipline to recalcitrant students, inevitably boys who wreaked havoc and disturbed the peace with activities like setting off cherry bombs in waste paper baskets and . . . → Read More: Mr. Sniff Geesler and Gavin Introduction This, my longest race report ever, is the story of my last race—Across the Years 2008. Whether the title means “last ever” or simply “most recent” you will have to read to find out. Were I to list the ten most rewarding things I have done in my life, involvement with Across . . . → Read More: My Last Race Geesler and Gavin Introduction This, my longest race report ever, is the story of my last race—Across the Years 2008. Whether the title means “last ever” or simply “most recent” you will have to read to find out. Were I to list the ten most rewarding things I have done in my life, involvement with Across the Years . . . → Read More: My Last Race As I prepare to move in a few days into our new house in the Berwick community of Columbus, these thoughts cross my mind. Long ago I attended a church service on Communion Sunday, when they pass around bread and wine. Next to me was a lady I never saw before, one who struck me . . . → Read More: Nuggets The drought is over. Today, for the first time, I walked into Fancy Dan’s Hotsy Totsy Downtown Athletic Club, more commonly known as the Athletic Club of Columbus (ACC), as a fully sanctified, card-carrying member. Finally — I can begin to get a piece of my life back. Given that by last Saturday . . . → Read More: Life at Fancy Dan’s On a long walk though Columbus, as I headed up Neil Street, I saw an earnest looking young man sitting on the front steps of his Victorian home. He was holding something close and rocking back and forth rhythmically. As I observed him on approach, I guessed he was either religious . . . → Read More: How to Tell the Difference Today I visited the local Social Security office in order to offer proof in person that I had been born. My life has just entered a new phase, as I have formally enrolled for Medicare. Perhaps I should also be buying up stock in Depends adult undergarments, as the leading edge of the . . . → Read More: On Civility Part One Most every Saturday of my life that I can arrange it, I spend the morning teaching others about the Bible, and then devote the afternoon or more engaged in long runs of varying dimension. At least that was my habit for the last twelve years before I moved to Columbus. While . . . → Read More: Two Running Vignettes Image by Getty Images via @daylife As a freshman at University of Illinois, I took Hawksa boring required course. The instructor was an insufferable moron, a graduate liberal arts student. Early in the semester there was a big snow storm. It was an early morning class, and I arrived a few minutes late, . . . → Read More: Coping with Incompetent Authority Dad On the morning my father died, he woke up and told my mother that he didn’t feel well and needed to get to the hospital right away. It did not take long to get him to where he could be made comfortable, but there was nothing that could be done. His life systems . . . → Read More: Famous Last Words Image via Wikipedia No one rises to an opportunity to make fun of newbies more quickly than someone, usually young and male, who was himself a newbie just last week and now knows everything. These people like to be alert to opportunities to respond to sincere questions asked on lists with handy . . . → Read More: Newbie Is as Newbie Does Image via Wikipedia So—yesterday I drove up to Highbanks Park, in the north end of the city, and because I’ve been sick for two weeks straight, opted not to do a long run, but wanted at least a token excursion to get some fresh air and bestir my heartbeat, so I walked . . . → Read More: Adena Mounds On Wednesday, January 2, 2008, I returned to my hole in the wall in Columbus, Ohio, from my ninth annual running of Across the Years, my seventh consecutive year in the 72-hour race, where the question most commonly asked by friends both new and old was: “Why, oh why Ohio?” It’s a reasonable question . . . → Read More: Across the Years 2007 I’ve been away from my blog. The following Piece was written in late October, 2007, about two weeks before I moved to Columbus, Ohio, about which I will more to say at another time. I invite you to view some pictures of the Bally’s indoor track I run at on my Web site. Allow time for the . . . → Read More: My Gym Geezer in San Francisco This race report lacks literary merit. Besides being endocrine depleted, I’m too busy to make it any better. But some people are hoping to see some sort of a report from the San Francisco 24-hour race, put on by Wendall Doman and Sarah Spelt of Pacific Coast Trail . . . → Read More: San Francisco One-Day Race Flaming bus “I haven’t been on a bus since I was a child,” I told Ursula, the pleasant, businesslike clerk behind the counter at the Greyhound Station at 720 W. Muhammad Ali Boulevard in Louisville, Kentucky. “What’s the process?” There was no one in line, and getting situated was easy. “That wasn’t . . . → Read More: My Bus Trip Image via Wikipedia Sometimes I hear about neglected pianos, upon which I go on a bit of a rampage. As the owner of a Steinway model K, which I bought brand new from the dealer, an instrument I have always tuned and cared for myself, the idea of a piano sitting in a . . . → Read More: Neglected Pianos Given an infinite universe, coincidences abound. From the Small World department … Follow this link to a Google map of a block in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. You will see a block long building between 8th and 9th Avenues to the east and west, and 15th and 16th Streets on the north . . . → Read More: Places in My Life Geezer finishes 50k Yesterday (February 10, 2007) I ran the Pemberton 50K at McDowell Mountain Park northeast of Fountain Hills Arizona, together with a total of five longtime fellow members of the Dead Runners Society, a highly social online running club that has been in existence since the early nineties: four . . . → Read More: I’ve Seen the Future Image by Getty Images via @daylife There was a maintenance man named Bill where I worked at Four Phase Systems in about 1985 who was a nice fellow, but one of the dumbest guys I’ve ever encountered. He was one of those guys for whom carrying a ladder was risky business, and whose . . . → Read More: Do I Have to Empty the Bit Buckets? Image via Wikipedia We recently heard a Bible talk that touched on honesty. It included exhortation to students to avoid looking at someone else’s paper during tests. My high school (attended 1957-1961) prided itself on what it called the “honor system,” something they began to prepare us for as early as seventh grade. . . . → Read More: Such a Lonely Word The summer between third and fourth grades (1952?), my family moved from a blue collar neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, where the men were policemen and plumbers, to the upscale suburb Wilmette, where most of the fathers were businessmen who did things none of us kids understood, some of them . . . → Read More: Snobs in Wilmette? Image via Wikipedia In February, 1972, my wife and I, who were living in the Riverdale area of Bronx, New York at the time, planned a week’s vacation to visit our parents in Wilmette, Illinois. (Our families lived four blocks apart.) I remember taking a cab to the airport and feeling wonderful that . . . → Read More: When I Almost Died As a runner who is deeply involved in the organization and presentation of Across the Years, yet who also manages to run the 72-hour race each year, mostly undistracted by official responsibilities other than to answer an occasional question, I enjoy a unique insider’s perspective on the race. It has been my pleasure . . . → Read More: A Family Affair Geezer at JJ 2006 At Javalina Jundred 100-mile trail race on November 4th and 5th, 2006, I had my toughest outing ever in that or in any other race. Less than two miles into my fifth loop at a little over 60 miles, I turned back and dropped, but I was fried both . . . → Read More: Javelina Jundred 2006 Saturday night I ran an all-night training run at Pemberton Trail, two full 15.4-mile laps plus the 9.2-mile partial loop that comes back on the Tonto Tank trail. It was my best trail training run in years. Not a race, but a no-cost supported run, its purpose was primarily to train for the Javelina Jundred 100-mile trail . . . → Read More: Running Through the Night Geezer runs all night As I’m training for the Javelina Jundred 100-mile trail race, my training schedule has called for a progressively increasing very long run every four weeks since May. As of today I’m still on target. A month ago I did a 40-miler, so the objective of yesterday’s run was to . . . → Read More: A 42.5-Mile Night Run Saturday afternoon I ran Pemberton Trail. The high in Phoenix was 102, about normal for this time of year. I didn’t see another human soul out there the whole time, not even in the parking lot. I felt good at the start, anxious to get in a good workout. I wore my light . . . → Read More: Running Pemberton Trail Image via Wikipedia There’s a guy who comes to Bally’s gym that I call Ape. I call him that because it’s his name. Well, maybe not, but it should be. What else could his mother have thought when she first saw him? Ape works out for hours almost every day, mostly in the free weights room. . . . → Read More: Ape Image via Wikipedia Near the beginning of John Updike’s novel Rabbit, Run the main character Rabbit and his wife Janet are having a minor tiff while Janet watches Mickey Mouse Club on TV. Chief adult Mousketeer Jimmy appears onscreen and the following takes place, beginning with Jimmy’s words: “God doesn’t want a tree to be a waterfall . . . → Read More: On Saying God Image via Wikipedia Saturday night we attended a Ballet Arizona performance that was billed as part of a George Balanchine festival. While the music, the dancing, and the choreography were all exquisite, the experience was not without eyebrow-raising issues. We bought tickets six months ago, when I learned that the program would be . . . → Read More: Balanchine Festival, Ballet Arizona Comments are closed Arts, Legacy, Music, Re: Views, Stories Ballet Arizona, George Balanchine, Igor Stravinsky Image by Getty Images via @daylife Mankind is inextricably addicted to the ceremonious giving of awards. When I was a Boy Scout, our troop had a pancake making contest. I took it seriously, thinking the intent was to make the finest-looking stack of pancakes possible. Some of the other boys brought in pancakes that . . . → Read More: Giving Awards Image via Wikipedia This is a tale of web “surfing” in the truest sense — something I don’t often do — an exploration of connections that led to an amusing conclusion relevant only to this blog. Last night Suzy and I rented and watched Enron — The Smartest Guys in the Room, the appearance of . . . → Read More: From Enron to Pink Plastic Flamingos Image via Wikipedia Shortly after the horrible events of September 11, 2001, the president of the nation of which I am a lifetime citizen became accustomed to declaring that if people did not go along with his plans and proposals for coping with the aftermath, “then the terrorists win!” Thus was born . . . → Read More: Terrorists Win Comments are closed Legacy, Opinions, Stories, Thoughts September 11 attacks, Terrorism, War on Terrorism |
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Copyright © 2012 Lynn David Newton - All Rights Reserved |
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