johnvano.com

24 Hours of Headlines

The last 24 hours have been huge for the sports world. Much of it affects me directly--as much as you can say that about games I have little time to watch.

1. Former 49ers coach Bill Walsh dies--Walsh was foundational to the way today's NFL is played. He was one of the first in the new breed of "genius" coaches who would replace the "fundamentals" guys by taking things to the next level--today his rightful heir is Bill Belichick. Walsh's 49er teams were a joy to watch, and during the down years of the Minnesota Vikings, I rooted for the 49ers almost as hard. It was like a punch in the gut to see his obituary last night on ESPN.com--he was a true champion.
2. Kevin Garnett is traded from the Minnesota Timberwolves--One of the NBA's greatest "tool" players, Garnett has played with ferocity and tirelessness since he first popped into the league straight from high school. It has been an honor to have him represent Minnesota, and he has shown great loyalty, character, and grit. It's a shame that the modern game dictates that a great player must be traded for the future and to give him a chance at a ring. I hate that. I wish him many championships with the Boston Celtics.
3. Braves trade Jarrod Saltalamacchia (and others) for Mark Teixeira (and one other)--Great trade for both sides. What could the Braves do with Salty? You hope McCann doesn't get injured in the next 2-3 years, but it's great to get some value out of an incredible find like Salty. Teixeira doesn't have outstanding numbers this year, and I hope the Braves haven't given up too much of their future on someone who A) might just be a B+ player and B) who might not be around for very long. So the real question is: How good are those four minor leaguers the Braves gave up? In the other Braves trade, Dotel for Davies seems like a toss-up. It's probably better for the Royals, because a good starter has more value to them then a decent reliever.
4. Minnesota Twins trade Luis Castillo--He's getting older and slower and basically just slaps his way on to first base, but I've been a fan of his since his Marlins days, and I really loved having him on the Twins. I guess they know what they're doing getting an unheralded catcher and outfielder.
5. Wilson Betemit to Yankees for Scott Proctor--I still think Betemit is going to amount to something; and I hate to think his climb to greatness could be with the Yankees.
6. Eric Gagne to the Red Sox--Classic! The rich get richer. Already with the best bullpen in baseball, the Sox now have three legitimate closers--a great comfort to any anxiety-prone Sox fan. And in typical Yankee-fashion, the Sox' big lead is slowly getting trimmed by the Yanks. I know this is Boston's year, but you can never be too sure.

Sometimes...

Sometimes when it's particularly hot and humid, I climb into my car and just sit there without turning on the engine. It may be 100 degrees outside and the vinyl may be peeling from my doors, but it feels good to just sit for a moment in the stifling heat. It's good for the pores. It warms me up after lunching in a frigid restaurant. Then when I get nauseous from the heat, it kind of becomes a game for me: How long can I last before I have to turn the key? If the windows were cracked and I had a dish of water I might fare better...

Our Mountains to Beach Vacation: The Mountains

From Sunday, July 15 through Thursday, July 19 we were in the Georgia mountains (Unicoi State Park, outside of Helen) at a family reunion featuring my father-in-law's side of the family. It was an opportunity to stay in a nice three-bedroom cabin with my in-laws, wife, and kids, get reacquainted with the uncles and cousins I know from this side of the family, and meet some new folks, too. I also greatly enjoyed the brief family history my father-in-law shared on a long car drive one morning.

On our first full day we visited Anna Ruby Falls. It was interesting that you had to drive through Unicoi State Park to get there. Anna Ruby is federally owned and operated, I gathered. The all uphill walk is said to be 4/10s of a mile, but it felt longer--especially in the rain. And particularly when we walked halfway up, went back to get out of the rain, and then traipsed up again. But I love these walks. And the falls were far more majestic than I ever imagined. The photo below does not even begin to capture just how tall the falls on the left are.

The moth you see above was on the grill of a truck when we pulled into our parking space at Anna Ruby. I carefully extracted it, and let the kids hold it (being careful that no one touched its wings). Eventually the moth found its way on to Madison's shirt, and there it sat for most of the hike.  We also took the kids fishing for the very first time--Marshall was particularly hopped up about this. But, we didn't get even a nibble, and most of the kids found it very boring, that is until Madison and Marshall were given free rein to cast--they certainly liked that, and as my eyes and mouth are still in good working order, it seems they really did miss me with their flying hooks.

Continue reading and you'll find out about the boy who eats butter, the birthplace of Ty Cobb, and the best place to buy plums...

Shame!

As an avid reader, I was once again confronted with evidence that my reading list is quite shallow. I have not plunged very deeply into the waters of classic literature. My required reading from school has left me shockingly short of the standard European texts (not to mention the fact that I rarely read, only scanned my required texts).

This may surprise some of you, but I never really read books--and certainly never finished them--until the spring of my senior year in college. It was then that I became fascinated by words and books and learning. Since then, I have always had something (or several things) that I am actively reading--and I have developed a great interest in history. But I have never caught up on the classics, having instead invested too many hours in the collected Alex Cross oeuvre (a middling James Patterson character).

I was referred yesterday to a list of The 100 Greatest Books Ever Written and found I have only read 10. Two of these, I'm not even sure that I've read from cover to cover (Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, but I've certainly seen them enough for this to count). Still, I promise to read these two over again. Actually, I probably own 30 of the books on this list.

So today I am challenging myself--not to read every book on the list (I'm a realist), but to reach the point that I've read at least 40 of them--and soon. Maybe I'll give myself three years, and see where I'm at. Who knows? Maybe I'll want to keep on reading all the way through. I'm sure that there are other lists that disagree with some of these choices (no To Kill a Mockingbird or The Great Gatsby?).

And watch for a future post containing my greatest 100 reads so far...

Books I've Read From "The Greatest 100":
#7  A Farewell to Arms (Ernest Hemingway)
#11 The Pilgrim's Progress (John Bunyan)
#20 The Sea Wolf (Jack London)
#34 Animal Farm (George Orwell)
#35 Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
#37 Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)
#54 Hamlet (William Shakespeare)
#57 Romeo and Juliet (William Shakespeare)
#63 The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)
#98 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)

The Yoshi of Helen

The following is the first in a short series of reflections on the strangers I met last week while on our "Mountains to Beach" family vacation:

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At the apex of Helen, Georgia and Unicoi State Park sits a grungy convenience store complete with gas pumps, foodstuff, and live bait. On my way to take our kids fishing for the first time, I dropped in for some worms and minnows, stopping outside to take a peek at the crickets. They were in a large wooden box out front and when I lifted the lid, it was like one of the plagues of Moses--hopping, chirping insects, stinking and making me wretch. I went inside and bought some worms, but despite their advertising, they had no minnows.

Later that evening, I stopped in for some milk and overheard a forty-ish, rail-thin local tell the shopkeep about her wedding plans, or rather, her fiance's wedding plans. It seems that he required her to 1) lose weight, 2) stop smoking, and 3) travel to Parakeet Island to get married. The Pakistani-esque clerk offered his sage advice, "Your partner should not ask you to change. What do you want to do?"

When she had left, I plopped down my chocolate milk and soda as he shook his head over the complications of love. He said, "When I get married... again... I am going to tell her, I have flaws and you have flaws. Accept me for who I am, and I will accept you. Life is too short." I agreed that marriage is a commitment between two imperfect people.

Then I asked him if the store was his and I was told that he managed it for a friend (likely the day clerk who was unconcerned about the lack of minnows). He continued, "I never thought about owning. I like to be free. I work and save money, then travel." His last trip was an extended stay in Japan. He's now saving for a trip to Australia and New Zealand. His long hair and contented manner left me with a new and improved impression of this little, grungy outpost.

Bear!

Johnvano.com has been stagnant while its author vacationed in the mountains of Georgia. Now I am in Northeast Florida--just a few minutes before we head to the beach.

We stayed at Unicoi State Park (part of the state park tour) for a family reunion on my wife's side. One day we turned right out of Unicoi and headed toward Hiawasee where my wife spotted a live, nude bear fishing in the stream off to the right. I whirled the car around, stopped in the middle of the winding pass, and snapped the picture you see here. We all (except Marshall) watched him climb out of the water, slink under a fence post, and head up a mountain road into the woods. What I think you see here is the bear's back leg as he makes it to the woods. Look between the two righter-most trees in the foreground. Sorry, this is the best I could do--I was driving.

The next day, there was a lot of commotion at the uncles' compound (they were not roughing it, staying in a seven-bedroom manse in the town of Helen, complete with Wii, pool, a handful of big screen TVs, etc.) when two bears were found digging in the garbage next to our van. It was nearing dusk and still bright out. Everyone rushed outside, but the bears ran off into the woods. A half dozen of the guys saw the bears, but I was not among their number. About six of us wandered toward the woods to get a glimpse, but were chided back to the house. Paula was teased because she worried that her precious van may have been scratched.

Am I Better for Knowing Him?

We took our kids to a live, Boz the Bear event at the Baptist church down the street. They had a marquee out front advertising Boz' imminent arrival and it excited my wife. I had never heard of Boz, but anything for the kids, right?

Perhaps 200 children and their parents were gathered in this church's sanctuary for two videos starring Boz. From the very moment Boz flicked to the life on the screen and opened his jolly mouth, I thought, "Barney." Boz, while no doubt a safe diversion for many a child, is another in a long list of Christian rip-offs of secular enterprises. In fact, I noticed a few years ago that Barney had a different voice. Boz sounds so much like Barney that the thought occurs to me that maybe Barney got saved and became Boz. Is it possible? Then I suppose the angels in heaven are rejoicing...

After the two videos on the jumbotron, Boz was introduced to much fanfare by a spritely, jumping woman of indeterminate age. She wore three-quarter-length khaki pants, bright-as-the-sun white shoes, an untucked shirt, and a flopsy blonde ponytail. Boz "sang" a couple of songs with the girl (he lip-synched from a recording) and then waved and said goodbye to the same fanfare. Nobody clapped.

I thought my kids would have a chance to take a photo with Boz, but no. But we did get a free CD which invited us to have our picture taken next week with Boz at a local Christian bookstore. Hmmm...

How We Spent July 4th

We drove south to Jarrell Plantation for the Fourth of July. While not a Georgia State Park, Jarrell is one of the state's official historic sites. Jarrell is located in Juliette, and we enjoyed a beautiful ride along the backroads through Conyers, Convington, and Jackson to get there. Since we didn't plan our day and Paula let me sleep in until 10:00 (!), we didn't arrive in time for the sack race, music, and other festivities. But we still enjoyed our self-guided tour of this 1850-1920 farm.

There were some spinners and quilters, a guy manning a steam whistle, some leather craftsmen, and free watermelon. The kids loved it--Paula even more so as it reminded her of the small Missouri farm that her maternal grandparents sold just a few years ago.

Next, we stopped in Juliette for a walk through the town featured in the 1991 film Fried Green Tomatoes. We got there at five minutes before 4:00, at which time the entire town rolls up and shuts down for the night. We were able to meander through The Whistle Stop Train Depot (which we mistakenly thought was the diner) and some of the gift shops. Then we found The Whistle Stop Cafe featured in the film--it was boarded up and the staff was inside sweeping, but it looked like a quaint place. I've never seen the movie, but Paula was able to attach some of the scenes to the places where we stood. I'll have to rent the movie soon.

As we were crossing a bridge, I happened to notice a teepee at the top of a small waterfall. I thought it would be neat to check it out. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see after we had trudged through the tall grass, enduring many ant bites.

Is This Appropriate for Children?

This is a photograph of an actual product at Toys R Us. Photo was taken last Saturday, June 30.

38 Years, 43 Movies

Ten years ago, the American Film Institute (AFI) honored themselves by compiling a list of the 100 best American films of the last 100 years. This summer, they updated the list with a tenth anniversary edition. Their top five: 1) Citizen Kane, 2) The Godfather, 3) Casablanca, 4) Raging Bull, and 5) Singin' in the Rain. Raging Bull and Singin' in the Rain were new to the top 5 (since 1997) and Gone with the Wind and Lawrence of Arabia slipped from the top 5 into spots 6 and 7 respectively. Also, there were 23 new films added to the top 100.

All of this inspired me to take a look at AFI's most recent list, ascertain how many of them I'd seen (43 of 100), and compile my own ranking from these. My scientifically subjective assessment is as follows. Each film was judged on a scale of 1 to 5 for: Story, Emotion or Humor Evoked, Visuals, Message, Time (stands the test of time or represents an era), and Performances. A perfect score in all six categories yields a 30. I have included each film's final score in parenthesis and have noted in which categories a film has earned a perfect score.

43. The Last Picture Show (11)
42. The Philadelphia Story (14)
41. Blade Runner (14)
40. 2001: A Space Odyssey (16) -- Time
39. Annie Hall (16)
38. Some Like it Hot (16)
37. The Sixth Sense (16)
36. Pulp Fiction (17)
35. The African Queen (18)
34. American Graffiti (18) -- Time
33. Titanic (18)
32. The Graduate (18)
31. Sophie's Choice (19)
30. North by Northwest (19)
29. Double Indemnity (20) -- Visuals