So Our Girl's Run This Year Is Done

Caitlin Clark, who was drafted by the Indiana  Fever right out of college, managed to get into the playoffs with her team, but got knocked out in the early rounds, and won't play again until April.

I didn't know enough about how the sport goes, to know how Caitlin played with the team, or how they changed their team play so that some of the senior players began to contribute strongly; or how their opposing teams managed to build defenses.  But lots of Fever fans weren't really expecting them to get into the playoffs at all, and were delighted that they did. 

As I said, I don't know enough about the game to comment on the supposed rough play that Caitlin was subjected to.  If there was a race aspect to the bullying (if there was bullying in the first place) that has to be eliminated. 

[Added later:  The story I was told is that a Connecticut player, who was wearing extended fingernails, poked Caitlin in the eye, thus ruining her vision temporarily—or possibly permanently.  One of Caitlin's greatest skills is the ability to sink baskets from far outside the conventional shooting range.  After the incident, Caitlin's percentage was reported to have plummeted.  The Fever lost that game, and—as we know, they were eliminated from the playoffs.]

 I love these two girls!

Kay

P.S. [Added on 10/2]:  The season—for the Fever, at any rate—being over, and the head of the Fever organization having retired, Caitlin is being interviewed by all sorts of journalists and news men.  In every case, Caitlin says just the most loving, and caring, and diplomatic thing that one can imagine, always giving credit to others, to the team, and to the coaches, and even to opposing teams. 

A lot of that is her upbringing.  I was brought up by parents who insisted on kind and gracious behavior, but Caitlin goes way, way beyond that sort of habitual courtesy.  Her gratitude seems genuine and heartfelt.  I'm running out of words to describe the sort of exemplary person that Caitlin is.  The entire team is becoming thoughtful and well-spoken, though I refrain from ascribing that phenomenon to Caitlin's influence.  In contrast, some—not all, but a few—of the women in opposing teams seem to make a point of being rough in their speech, as if to say: don't expect us to sugar-coat what we say, like Caitlin's B.S.

Lexie Hull is a lovely girl, one of Caitlin's closest friends from among her teammates.  She's a tall girl—probably 6 foot 2—and muscled appropriately to her height.  But the remarkable thing is that she does not look particularly big. 

DA Just Shocked Me

Most of you know, by now, that Kay (Hemlock) Brown is a completely made-up name, and that image of me on this page is just a made-up picture, though it is pretty close.   These days, with AI art and everything, people probably have a pretty good handle on the facts when I say that my ID Pic is mostly me. 

But imagine my surprise, when I was going through the gallery of a new member on DA, and I saw several nude images that looked very much like me!!!   I know they only look like me,  because I never had nude Pics taken of me in my life, but—you know—the shock is quite real. 

I usually like to put up some sort of photo or image with each post.  But today, I'm resisting the temptation with all my might, because the last thing I want is fake nudes of me on the Web.

TO be honest, this girl looks a lot more beautiful than me, certainly a lot more shapely.  I'm not going to say any more about her. 

Kay

Why DA is sometimes Disappointing

Every day I put in a few minutes on DeviantArt—DA, which has become like taking an early morning stroll, for me.  My state of mind when I close it down ïs often different from one day to the next. 

Most of the guys who post art on the site, are posting fantasies: fantasy women which populate their Manga stories, or their video games. 

I'm imagining fantasy protagonists, too, but I need girls who are more than just decorative!  I can imagine a lot of these DA women standing around, looking encouragingly at the guys, —and maybe the girls.  But I'm looking for a girl who would join me in an adventure!  Take charge, some of the time; be a real participant!

A lot of the images depict intense girls, who seem preoccupied with their looks—especially if their hair has been done up in a fancy style.  Girls wearing complicated clothes, are not so bad; girls like to wear something weird every now and then; that's fine.  But those images of high-maintenance girls are such a waste of time!

You Know Who else is Super Cute?

September 21, 2024.

Ilona Maher!

Who is this, you might ask?  She was playing Rugger for the USA at the Paris Olympics, and almost as the end of the match, found herself in possession of the ball.  She got off the ground, and ran like the blazes for the touch line, and scored a touchdown!  It was duly converted, and the US won bronze.  It was so fun watching Ilona hustling with the ball!

I'll find a Pic for you!

https://youtu.be/GNBG2aMvlRw?si=89wZHhMde974oSOc

She's adorably klutzy, but very WYSIWYG, a forthright person.  She tends to talk super fast when she's excited—which is pretty much all the time—and that seems normal with athletes; girl athletes, anyway. 

I might not have said that she's on Dancing With the Stars at the moment. 

Kay

Caitlin C!

This girl is an amazing athlete!

When I just learned about Caitlin Clark late last year, and thought how cute she was, and learned how well she was playing this game about which I knew only: Ball, and Basket, I never realized I was biting off more than I could chew. 

It's more than just making baskets, obviously; there's fouls, and free throws, and 3- pointers, and all sorts of crap that I DON'T WANT TO KNOW!!  I never wanted to know all about this game; I just knew a little about it from playing with a little cousin, who wanted me to play with her all the time, so we played something called Around the World.  I don't even know whether little kids these days play that version.

These days, when Caitlin gets into trouble, the internet throws a ton of information at you—you know our friend the internet—and I'm getting snowed with unwanted information. 

I'm learning what a nice person this girl is, and her sense of humor; so no nonsense!  In some ways I feel so lucky that I stumbled on such a cute person to 'Fangirl' over.  On the other hand, I don't even know enough about the game to explain what happens. 

I'm beginning to learn about the other members of the team, Lexie Hull, who is kind of an egghead from Stanford U, Aliyah Boston (not sure she really has two consecutive 'a's in her name) a big, friendly teddy bear of a girl who really likes to look after Caitlin; Kelsey Mitchell, and other players who have her back, and so on. 

Lexie Hull and her twin, Lacie

Kay

The Debate

9-11-2024

I was cringing as I watched the debate last night.  Trump was pushing out lies so fast that Kamala Harris could not even express her amazement fast enough.  But the talking heads who analyzed it later were all in agreement that Kamala had won handsomely.  (I couldn't handle it, so I went to bed early.  And while I was gone, guess what?  Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris!)

If the election were to be held today, Trump would be toast. 

Kay

E Books, and Language

As with many persons who have grown up in literate households, all through teens, twenties and thirties, I corrected grammar, spelling and syntax errors everywhere I found them.  When I was younger, I was brutal, not caring how I might have embarrassed anyone.  Since I had been a teacher, though, I have tried to be more tactful.

But I'm beginning to realize that the problem is becoming enormous.  People who post on popular media don't check what they post; they use 'he' as a pronoun for a woman; they leave out words, most commonly articles (the, a, an)—but in some foreign languages I have since come to know that articles actually do not exist (Russian, for instance), so sometimes posts with that sort of omission could originate from people of foreign origin, or indeed from abroad. 

Articles on sports, particularly, are incredibly chock full of jargon, and are difficult to read, unless one becomes accustomed to reading sports News.  I think that those who aspire to becoming sports commentators learn to talk that way, as a means of establishing their credentials, and naturally write that way as well.  It could be that men are not as careful about their language as are women, and most sports writers are men. 

Also, I have noticed that sports articles on Fb are filled with prejudice.

My Facebook feed is now redolent with articles about old- time movie stars.  Fb loves those sorts of posts, and probably pays whoever posts them something.  If I happen to like (or love) those posts, I will soon get a million of them, all poorly written. 

Similarly with stories about aging rockers. 

I'm Really Pleased

This morning, I was scrolling my way through my Fb feed, when I saw an article on Caitlin Clark.  (They throw lots of CC posts at me.  So predictable.)

This article was unusual.  It was easy to understand, it didn't have a ton of statistics, it wasn't filled with abstruse basketball terms that I didn't understand.  Best of all, there was hardly any mention about how much money Caitlin Clark is earning the WNBA, something that is common knowledge, but something which I find a little crass. 

Instead, there was a lot about how Caitlin's presence in the Indiana Fever has increased attendance at their games, and viewership of women's basketball all over the US and all over the world!  (I guess, even if no one talks about money, indirectly it all translated to increased earnings; but this is a little more classy.)

There was some mention of Caitlin's supportive teammates, Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell.  (I personally love Boston; she has such a friendly grin, and she is so supportive of her team!  She's lovely to have in that team.  I can easily understand how hard it must be to have Caitlin show up and make them all look bad.  That was at the beginning; pretty soon they were all playing well; I guess just as soon as Caitlin got confident about her teammates. 

There was a feature about Caitlin that emphasized that she was an all-round sportsman (or sportswoman), a musician, and a pretty good dancer!  They mentioned her favorite popular musicians, but I only caught the name of Drake.

But, alas, that awesome post about Caitlin: it got whisked away, before I could comment and say how well-written it was!

Kay

Galactic Voyager is Set to Depart Soon!

When I wrote Galactic Voyager, I wanted it to be in our very near future; I wanted all the science to be essentially familiar from high school physics.  It was set (to depart Moon orbit) in the 21st Century (I was writing around 1999), which means around this year!

Now, of course, nobody has the will—or the budget, let's be serious—to consider such a thing as to outfit an enormous space vessel 6 miles long, and send it off in an open-ended voyage.  I was young and naïve, and I thought it wouldn't be too impossible.  If I were to write it now, I would postpone the departure of the Voyager by about a hundred years. 

I haven't been able to get a nice cover image for the book.  I wanted the view from the rear window of the piloting nacelle (a sort of cabin out on an arm, that stays put, while the ship rotates).  I think I could afford to pay for a nice piece of art.  I might need two artists: one to draw the Voyager, and the other to draw a few people inside the nacelle, looking out through the window. 

K.