Spring

Spring is here. I hope that where you live is as lovely as the day is here in Georgia, 75 degrees, little humidity, cool breezes and just enough clouds to ease the glare of all that sunshine. Well, if you are not that fortunate, hang in, because Spring will touch you soon (and here, I a few days, it will be 90, humid and likely to rain).

Whenever the nice weather hits your area, enjoy it. There is no recreation, no pastime, and free and pleasant as a fine Spring day. Take advantage.

Go walking or bike riding. Find a nice outdoor café and have a cup of coffee and a snack, Tend to your garden. Play with the dog/ Or simply sit outside and watch the World go by. It is hard to imagine a finer way to spend the day, unless it's finding a nice lounge chair by a pool and napping in the pleasant, warm,, but not too warm, sunshine.

Whatever you do, do not waste a find Spring day with worry and stress. Work, if work you must, but not too hard, and save a few minutes to enjoy the day. All too soon, the long, hot Summer will be here.

Forgotten Books

Every now and then, I like to mention books that seem to be forgotten. Not in the Classical canon, mind you, just fine stories worth note.

First, Peter Straub's wonderful mystery, The Throat. The book is long, over 800 pages, and I had no idea who did the deed until the last 2 pages. The rest of the book is a beautifully written, page turner. Straub builds tension slowly, adding clues here and there, leading down many roads, all of them very dark. many of those roads are false leads, but all of them are worth the trip. Straub is mostly known as a horror  writer and this book, while not in that genre, reminds us that most monsters walk on 2 feet. Some even live next door. This is just a great mystery novel/

Next, I want to remind you of a fine novel written by Larry McMurtry. A lot of people read his fine book, Lonesome Dove, but I doubt as many read the sequel. Streets of Loredo. This, in my opinion, is a far better novel. It is shorter and McMurtry allows himself no side stories, no beautiful descriptions of the Prairies, nothing but the story. Woodrow Call, from Lonesome Dove, is growing old, but still works as an outlaw hunter. He is assigned the job of catching a young, violent robber and killer. I'll tell you no more of the plot, but I will tell you that the book is realistic, brutal, harsh and bleak
The most impressive part of the story is McMurty's refusal to romanticize the Old West. There are no illusions of heroic gun fighters, no noble Indians, no clever criminals, just humans trying to survive, not just the harsh physical conditions, but the mind numbing boredom  of their day to day lives. It is a finely crafted novel.

Last today, I'd like to mention a few works of Frank Herbert. Most of you are familiar with Herbert's awesome sci-fi novel Dune, but not the 3 sequels to it, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, and God Emperor of Dune. To those who have only read the first of the series, do yourself a favor and see how Pau's ambitious plans worked out. Herbert also wrote another series, with a poet named Bill Ransom, a trilogy. The books are Destination Void, The Jesus Incident, and The Ascension Factor. The books deal with about every subject imaginable, religion, computers, genetic engineering, cloning, human rights, and the nature of consciousness and are beautifully written.

That's it for today. I hope you will give these fine books a read. It would be a shame if they were forgotten

Dante

As you know, if you have read this blog before, I love Classic literature. Over the years, I have gone back and reread many tales that were spoiled for me by over zealous and boringly picky teachers and, inevitably, I fall in love with those stories.

One such tale is Dante's Divine Comedy. We no longer read long, epic poetry. I know that I have difficulty adjusting to that form, but it is well worth the effort. It is , of course, a 3 part story, Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise, and it tells of Dante's vision of a descent into Hell, and reemergence into Purgatory and Heaven. On the first 2 parts he is accompanied by the Roman poet Virgil. viewed as a virtuous and condemned to a not unpleasant after life but denied heaven since he was born before Christ. On the last part of the journey, He is led by Beatrice, a woman of supreme beauty and virtue.

Along the way, he meets and chats with many beings, some mythic and some the souls of dead people, famous and infamous. All tell there tales, many pathetic, some surprisingly funny. Dante uses the tale to pick at many of his enemies and is a biting satirist.

The books are a challenge. That said, they are worth the effort. Do not make the mistake many make and just read the Inferno you will miss a lot if you do, One word of warning. The description in the first 2 parts are a bit on the disgusting side. How much depends on just which translation you read. All of them are pretty good. I like John Ciardi's because it is very blunt. He did not try to make Dante's words overly pretty, since the work was done in Italian and written in a common usage style.

Read the books and suspend your disbeliefs and you will be taken on a grand, if somewhat disturbing, ride. .
 

The Masters

This week, The Masters is being played. For those not aware, this is an annual event that brings golf's best together in competition. There is little in the world of sports that compares.

The site is Georgia's Augusta National course. It is beautiful, rolling hills, lovely streams and bountious blooms of dogwood and azalea,  mixed with little stone bridges, a stately clubhouse and magnificent magnolias and pines.

The course itself is quirky. The fairways are very wide and the rough is insignificant. The tree do come into play and, from there, sometimes the shot is easy, sometimes impossible. On several holes, a mistake will put you in the water. The sand traps are not deep, like on links courses, but they are placed where they will cause maximum difficulty.

The big issue is the hills. Every faitway is up and down and side to side and the greens are full of slopes, some very obvious, some subtle. Where you are hitting from determines where you can hit to and your approach shot must factor in the green's slopes. The areas around the greens are often shaved, so a even a seemingly fine shot will find itself rolling off the green, often into sand or water.

The course plays different every year because the weather in Georgia, this time of year is unpredictable, sometimes hot and dry, sometimes wet and rainy, not infrequently cold. And, it changes from day to day and sometimes every few hours.

IT may be still, which makes things easy, but, usually, the wind is up and it gets caught in the tall pines. That  makes it swirl and judging a shot can be nightmarish.

All in all, a fitting test for the World's best players. The tournament is special. And, by the way, it can be so volatile that the old time players were right when they said, the tournament doesn't really hit its stride until the back nine on Sunday. Sit back this weekend and enjoy The Masters.