The Post Reflects on Chalmers Roberts

The Chal Roberts Story (washingtonpost.com)

Chal's article of Saturday illustrated a 93-year-old mind that works as well as anyone's, at any age. Those who know him, and the thousands of older Post readers who read his work so often, could only wish for many more decades of Chal. But the same friends and readers can only admire the qualities he brought to his decision, the same toughness and lack of sentimentality that have served us all so uniquely and so well.

For better or worse, toughness and lack of sentimentality are what we prize in our reporters. To be fair, the Post also lauds Roberts' "fairness, intelligence, and nuanced judgment."

Death Be Not Proud, by John Donne

72. Death be not proud, though some have called thee. John Donne. Metaphysical Lyrics & Poems of the 17th c.

DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,	         5
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,	  10
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

Roberts, however, faces his death with no hope of an afterlife, believing that the time he has in this life is all he will have.

Death Be Not Proud

The Decision of a Lifetime (washingtonpost.com)

I could be dead when you read this. But I thought it might be worthwhile to put down my thoughts about how I decided to skip a lifesaving heart operation.

Chalmers Roberts lived life on his own terms. Now, by refusing a potentially life-saving operation, he is preparing to die on his own terms. Few of us could ask for better.

Just Say No

Protesters Pour Into Manhattan Streets (washingtonpost.com)

NEW YORK -- Bearing flag-draped boxes resembling coffins and fly-swatters with President Bush's image, more than 100,000 protesters peacefully swarmed Manhattan's streets on the eve of the Republican National Convention to demand that President Bush be turned out of office.

Hurry It Up, Please

Guest blogger Jim Hanas captures the wickedly funny tone of the late lamented Action in a biting comment on the mass production of writing:

[I]t still reminds me of a line from the doomed yet brilliant Fox series Action. At one point, a screenwriter who's been put through the wringer checks into the hospital for exhaustion. "Exhaustion?" scoffs soulless producer Peter Dragon. "You're just sitting there. Writing is the cure for exhaustion."

Long Way Home

In the latest chapter in the decline and fall of Washinton'sMetro subway system, the red line was running trains in both directions on a single track in order to perform maintenance on the line. The ride home was three times as long as usual, in hot, overcrowded subway car. Fortunately, I was in good company. I played over a chess game with Irving Chernev, and I let Ibn Batuta regale me with stories of his adventures in the courts of the 14th century Indian Moguls. (Some of which, such as accounts of Mongol conquest, dynastic murders, and wife burning, were admittedly rather grim.)

The Gibson Monument

As we enjoyed dinner at a very fine Spanish restaurant in Washington, one of my companions brought up my (remote) Scottish ancestry, and the discussion quickly turned to Braveheart. I have always thought it amusing that outside the visitors center at the Wallace Monument in Stirling there is a statue of William Wallace, rendered to look exactly like Mel Gibson. The explanation I was given was that since no one knows what Wallace really looked like, why not make him look like Mel Gibson? (We do know, from the Wallace sword, that Wallace must have been taller than Gibson).

As for Mr. Gibson's more recent career, I do not really hold it against him. However, I find it hard to understand how a religious person like Gibson reconciles the imitation of Christ with a career based on extreme movie violence. I do not consider myself a very religious person, but I have never thought that the main point of Christ's life and teachings was the brutality of his death.

el-Guerrouj Gets the Gold

The New York Times > Sports > Olympics > Track and Field: Guerrouj Gets His One Missing Honor

Aug. 24 - Hicham el-Guerrouj dropped to his knees and kissed the track, snapping the spell of two straight Olympic failures for himself and for Morocco.

With a defiant, redemptive kick, Guerrouj outlasted Bernard Lagat of Kenya in the final thrilling 50 meters of the men's 1,500-meter race on Tuesday and then edged him at the line by 12-hundredths of a second, a blink that became the achievement of a lifetime.

The Evils of TV

The television is more evil than the computer (Jeremy Zawodny's blog)

In our family debates, I generally espouse the point of view expressed by Jeremy Zawodny, but there is clearly another side to the argument that TV is simply evil.

I have enjoyed watching the Olympics on the television; I don't think that I would enjoy gymnastics as much on the computer. While I watched the Olympics, I could cuddle up with my wife and daughter on the couch. This does not work well at the keyboard; in fact, taking the baby to the computer is an invitation to a tantrum. Once we have finished watching a program together, it is often the subject of a discussion. This happens less frequently with the computer, which caters to our divergent more than our common interests.

Finally, as Zawodny's practice of turning on the iTunes at the keyboard suggests, one tends to tune out in front of the CRT, minimizing interaction with other people. Anyone who uses a computer is clearly aware that it can become obsessive. I have never been accused of ignoring someone because I was watching television, but occasionally people have suggested that I should pay more attention to them and less to the computer.

For myself, I would cheerfully dispense with a television, but not at the expense of social relationships with my family.

News to Me

I did not know until today that the Poetry Foundation is one of the world's largest literary foundations, thanks to a bequest of more than $100 million. I have been a subscriber to Poetry magazine for a bit more than a year now, and I received a letter from the president about the Foundation's plans with the latest issue.

A Disappointing Footnote

Paul Hamm apparently earned his all-around gold medal in gymnastics as a result of a scoring error. The medal is likely to stand because the South Koreans, who should have won, did not issue a timely protest. Sometimes a storybook ending is too good to be true.

Losing It

Weighed in at 174.8. Goal: 145 by Christmas. Program: . The basic premise seems to be that developing a little more muscle mass speeds up one's metabolism and burns more calories. Monitor: BalanceLog. Of course, I still haven't solved the problem of giving in to the temptation to finish off Gayle's quesadillas tonight at Baja Fresh, but at least if I am monitoring my intake maybe I will be a little more disciplined.

Better Living Through Chess

I am working on improving my chess game. I have tentatively begun a program outlined by Dan Heisman at ChessCafe.com. I am almost through Heisman's book, . I am trying out the USCF"s Chess Tactics for Beginners CD-ROM. Next up on my reading list are and . Most of my playing these days is limited to ChessWorld.net. Because ChessWorld.net essentially hosts correspondence games on the Internet, I can enter one move at a time and log off. In the meantime, my opponent can respond at his or her convenience. It is a lot easier to play this way than to find a 90-minute block of time for a traditional over-the-board game.