Thursday, January 25, 2007
All For Our Country Indeed
There are those in Nevada, as everywhere, who advocate something they call "States' Rights." That is, they believe that States, not the Federal government, should have the final say over what may or may not happen within each respective State's borders. The idea stems from before the American Civil War, at which time the country was referred to thusly: "The United States of America are . . ." Since that conflict, of course, what you hear is "The United States of America is . . ." That is a significant change in perspective, and a broader interpretation of the phrase "E pluribus unum" than apparently some early citizens intended. The fact that the country is referred to with "is" as opposed to "are" should tell anyone paying attention that "States' Rights" is a dead concept around here, but still the idea persists, for some reason. Even in Nevada.
But, however, and although in fact, as I learned when I was assigned to teach a class in Nevada history and constitution, in Nevada the concept is, in plain fact, unconstitutional. I may even write the idiot who publishes the Las Vegas Review-Journal and quote the constitution to him. (He's an advocate of telling the Federal government to get lost.) Why? Here, from Article 1, Section 2 of the Nevada Constitution of 1864, never amended (in this particular) since is the answer:
"Purpose of government; paramount allegiance to United States. All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for the protection, security, and benefit of the people; and they have the right to alter or reform the same whenever the public good may require it. But the Paramount Allegiance of every citizen is due to the Federal Government in the exercise of all its Constitutional powers as the same may have been or may be defined by the Supreme Court of the United States; and no power exists in the people of this or any other State of the Federal Union to dissolve their connection therewith or perform any act tending to impair, subvert, or resist the Supreme Authority of the government of the United States."
The section then goes on to say that the use of armed force to squash any attempt to do what it says nobody can do is justified. To Nevada, the Union is like the Mafia: you can get in, but you can never leave. Hey, maybe it's like the Hotel California? Either way, anyone in Nevada advocating State's Rights can rightfully be subject to armed invasion by the State Militia, apparently. I've mentioned before that Nevada has an odd government, unlike any other State, apparently, and here's another demonstration.
It says it on the flag, bro: All For Our Country. You got a problem with that? Arizona is that-a-way!
If you're interested in learning more about the history of this oddball state, check out this link: http://www.nevada-history.org. It has more than anyone will ever need to know about the history of Nevada. You just have to believe that any place Sam Clemens helped get started has to be a bit odd, right?
But, however, and although in fact, as I learned when I was assigned to teach a class in Nevada history and constitution, in Nevada the concept is, in plain fact, unconstitutional. I may even write the idiot who publishes the Las Vegas Review-Journal and quote the constitution to him. (He's an advocate of telling the Federal government to get lost.) Why? Here, from Article 1, Section 2 of the Nevada Constitution of 1864, never amended (in this particular) since is the answer:
"Purpose of government; paramount allegiance to United States. All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for the protection, security, and benefit of the people; and they have the right to alter or reform the same whenever the public good may require it. But the Paramount Allegiance of every citizen is due to the Federal Government in the exercise of all its Constitutional powers as the same may have been or may be defined by the Supreme Court of the United States; and no power exists in the people of this or any other State of the Federal Union to dissolve their connection therewith or perform any act tending to impair, subvert, or resist the Supreme Authority of the government of the United States."
The section then goes on to say that the use of armed force to squash any attempt to do what it says nobody can do is justified. To Nevada, the Union is like the Mafia: you can get in, but you can never leave. Hey, maybe it's like the Hotel California? Either way, anyone in Nevada advocating State's Rights can rightfully be subject to armed invasion by the State Militia, apparently. I've mentioned before that Nevada has an odd government, unlike any other State, apparently, and here's another demonstration.
It says it on the flag, bro: All For Our Country. You got a problem with that? Arizona is that-a-way!
If you're interested in learning more about the history of this oddball state, check out this link: http://www.nevada-history.org. It has more than anyone will ever need to know about the history of Nevada. You just have to believe that any place Sam Clemens helped get started has to be a bit odd, right?
Labels: Politics, Social Commentary
Monday, January 15, 2007
Brrrrr?
This isn't really about any marathon per se. It's about yesterday's training run. The club is still together for those training for the winter/spring season. I'm going to San Diego, but that's not what this is about. These training runs take place in Henderson Nevada, in the Mojave desert, a region noted for being hotter than Hell or so I'm told (never visited Hell so I can't swear to it.) Yesterday we went for a nice run, wearing lots and lots of clothing. At the first aid station the person I was running with got to the table first and said, "Hey, Tim, the Gatorade's all frozen!" Tim being the guy who sets up the aid stations. He was right: the Gatorade was slush.
When I got up it was twenty degrees in Henderson. The sun wasn't up yet when we got to the first aid station, so maybe it was even colder. I know, those of you in cold climates are somewhat temperate in your sympathy. But, I have run and trained in Minneapolis, the coldest major metropolitan area in the lower forty-eight. I know what cold is. But consider, if you moved to Vegas, would you consider that you might encounter a hazard like frozen Gatorade? Last July it was 97 degrees one Sunday when we took off, 105 degrees when we came back in. Frozen Gatorade? Salted Sweetened water that freezes outside? In Vegas?
Okay, go ahead and laugh at my wimpiness now. I got it off my chest.
By the way, Tami and I just got back from an overnight in Zion National Park. It was in the single digits last night. Georgous place, but you can't get to the narrows because of recent snow. Drat it all.
When I got up it was twenty degrees in Henderson. The sun wasn't up yet when we got to the first aid station, so maybe it was even colder. I know, those of you in cold climates are somewhat temperate in your sympathy. But, I have run and trained in Minneapolis, the coldest major metropolitan area in the lower forty-eight. I know what cold is. But consider, if you moved to Vegas, would you consider that you might encounter a hazard like frozen Gatorade? Last July it was 97 degrees one Sunday when we took off, 105 degrees when we came back in. Frozen Gatorade? Salted Sweetened water that freezes outside? In Vegas?
Okay, go ahead and laugh at my wimpiness now. I got it off my chest.
By the way, Tami and I just got back from an overnight in Zion National Park. It was in the single digits last night. Georgous place, but you can't get to the narrows because of recent snow. Drat it all.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Serious Comedy Part Two
So, then, you say, how does humor work, anyway? Heck, I wish I knew, but I’m about to tell you what I think about how it works, if that helps any.
First, and this is very important, humor always builds on fear. If you slip on a banana peel it just isn’t funny. Seeing somebody else do it is a riot. That’s because you can feel smug that you weren’t stupid enough to slip on a banana peel. You’re afraid of looking like a goofus by doing things like stumbling around, so it’s funny to see somebody else going through it. I’ll bet that on some level it’s also reassuring, because anybody with a shred of self-awareness knows that the world is pretty much made out of banana peels waiting to be slipped on. And fear isn’t limited to losing face, although that’s a huge bit of it. We’re also afraid of, well public speaking, believing the wrong religion, having the wrong friends, being poor, senescence, senility, old age in general, and of course, the big one, death. Can’t do a lot about that last one, which makes it really rich in lodes of humor to mine. So-called “black” humor isn’t jokes from African Americans, it’s jokes that are so awful that you have to laugh out of sheer self defense. Sometimes you find yourself falling down laughing while at the same time feeling guilty for laughing at such an unmitigated disaster. The worse, the better, when it comes to humor.
Well, a lot of jokes about politicians we hate, or kids in school who are different from us, or that sort of common humor, are pretty lame, although if you study who’s making that sort of joke you’ll know who feels the most powerless over the situation, which can be interesting. The reason that they’re lame is that while they do rely on something that’s widely feared, they lack some other elements of humor that are important to making it actually work. Elements such as timing and surprise, I mean.
Timing refers to the pace of the story. A joke is just a story, you know, and those who mess up, like I talked about in the last post, often lose their audience because they have no respect for timing at all. Sometimes you have to hesitate before delivering the punchline. Not too much, though, but just enough. How much is that? Well, that’s where talent comes in. It depends on the story, the audience, the weather, and the temperature on Betazed so far as I can tell. Surprise is what a lot of people mess up in telling jokes at parties. A joke is funny if you, the listener, get to slap your head and go, for example, “Oh, shit, it was a woman all along!” The surprise has to be something scary (for the subject of the joke) and as totally unexpected as you can manage it to be. It doesn’t have to be fatally scary. As I said earlier, saving face is good, too, and easier to come up with. Blonde jokes have to do with saving face (thank goodness I’m not a dumb blonde.) So do ethnic jokes, farmer/rancher jokes, all sorts of popular series of jokes. Then again, some types of jokes rely on surprise alone. Elephant jokes, for example. Remember how you know if an elephant has been in your refrigerator? Well, think about it. I’ll bet you can find that using Google, if you really can’t remember.
So my point after all is that comedy is a serious business, and not always all that easy. And I am not, at all, trying to make a joke.
First, and this is very important, humor always builds on fear. If you slip on a banana peel it just isn’t funny. Seeing somebody else do it is a riot. That’s because you can feel smug that you weren’t stupid enough to slip on a banana peel. You’re afraid of looking like a goofus by doing things like stumbling around, so it’s funny to see somebody else going through it. I’ll bet that on some level it’s also reassuring, because anybody with a shred of self-awareness knows that the world is pretty much made out of banana peels waiting to be slipped on. And fear isn’t limited to losing face, although that’s a huge bit of it. We’re also afraid of, well public speaking, believing the wrong religion, having the wrong friends, being poor, senescence, senility, old age in general, and of course, the big one, death. Can’t do a lot about that last one, which makes it really rich in lodes of humor to mine. So-called “black” humor isn’t jokes from African Americans, it’s jokes that are so awful that you have to laugh out of sheer self defense. Sometimes you find yourself falling down laughing while at the same time feeling guilty for laughing at such an unmitigated disaster. The worse, the better, when it comes to humor.
Well, a lot of jokes about politicians we hate, or kids in school who are different from us, or that sort of common humor, are pretty lame, although if you study who’s making that sort of joke you’ll know who feels the most powerless over the situation, which can be interesting. The reason that they’re lame is that while they do rely on something that’s widely feared, they lack some other elements of humor that are important to making it actually work. Elements such as timing and surprise, I mean.
Timing refers to the pace of the story. A joke is just a story, you know, and those who mess up, like I talked about in the last post, often lose their audience because they have no respect for timing at all. Sometimes you have to hesitate before delivering the punchline. Not too much, though, but just enough. How much is that? Well, that’s where talent comes in. It depends on the story, the audience, the weather, and the temperature on Betazed so far as I can tell. Surprise is what a lot of people mess up in telling jokes at parties. A joke is funny if you, the listener, get to slap your head and go, for example, “Oh, shit, it was a woman all along!” The surprise has to be something scary (for the subject of the joke) and as totally unexpected as you can manage it to be. It doesn’t have to be fatally scary. As I said earlier, saving face is good, too, and easier to come up with. Blonde jokes have to do with saving face (thank goodness I’m not a dumb blonde.) So do ethnic jokes, farmer/rancher jokes, all sorts of popular series of jokes. Then again, some types of jokes rely on surprise alone. Elephant jokes, for example. Remember how you know if an elephant has been in your refrigerator? Well, think about it. I’ll bet you can find that using Google, if you really can’t remember.
So my point after all is that comedy is a serious business, and not always all that easy. And I am not, at all, trying to make a joke.
Labels: Writing
Comedy. Seriously
A long time ago, as my public writing goes, I wrote a humor column about how comedy isn’t pretty. It was the first thing I ever posted online, and it is still available on Steve’s Funny Pages. If you want to read it, you just click on the archives link, then on 1999, and it is the one highlighted in red. It actually isn’t bad, but other than a few allusions here and there I’ve never really talked about humor, and I know that I never have written a word about it on this blog. When I talked about it on the Funny Pages, I was trying to be funny, so the truth, while it’s in there somewhere, might be hidden. But the truth is, comedy really is pretty serious stuff. There are graduate level courses in humor, a great many books on the subject, and no end of places to go and practice if you want to get funnier. Right about here, on the Funny Pages, I’d say that I swear I’m not making this up or some such thing. On the blog, though, I try not to make anything up, but that actually illustrates something about being funny that a lot of people who don’t probably don’t ever think of.
That is, if you try to be funny all the time, when you’re actually just saying what you believe to be the facts, people think you’re making a joke. I don’t make a career out of humor, but I can imagine Robin Williams running up to a crowd and yelling “There’s a tsunami coming! Run for your lives!” and they’d all still be laughing when they were swept away. If most of us did that, at least some people would take off running. But Robin Williams has a family, including children, a house, all the usual stuff, and I’m sure he faces the usual frustrations in dealing with all of that. Don’t we all, though? There’s no reason to think he doesn’t need to do all the regular mundane things we all do to get by. Okay, he’s got more money, but a great many comedians really don’t, and they have the same problem as Robin Williams when it comes to being taken seriously. The real truth is, comedians are terribly serious people.
When Mark Twain said that he preferred “Heaven for the climate and Hell for the company,” people always laughed at it. But, I’m pretty sure that anybody would agree if he thought about it for a while. Judging by the sort of people who always seem virtuous and deserving of Heaven, it must be a pretty dull place. All the interesting folks apparently go the other way, and that’s what Mark Twain was saying. No joke, it’s no joke. But that’s not the most serious thing about humor, by a long shot.
The most serious thing about humor is making it work. You know somebody who can’t tell a joke, don’t you? They mess up the timing, screw up the words, blow the punchline, miss a paragraph of narrative, whatever it takes to screw up a joke. Imagine then if you’re trying to be consistently funny for an entire hour in front of an audience. They paid money to listen to you be funny. Now, you mess up a punchline, miss a paragraph, mess up the timing, whatever, and how do they feel about that? How do you feel when that person you know who always messes up when telling a joke keeps right on trying? Don’t’ you wish sometimes that you had a tub of tar and a chicken to pluck? Now imagine you paid that person to make you laugh. Want to throw in some bamboo under the fingernails now? Nobody would blame you. So, it’s important to know how comedy works, because even the best comedian can’t possibly come up with enough material off the cuff to get by. Sometimes you have to take something that’s pretty ordinary and make it funny by hook or by crook. Crook’s better in this case, by the way.
So, it behooves anyone who wants to be funny to learn what that means. Which, as it happens, is the topic of the next post.
That is, if you try to be funny all the time, when you’re actually just saying what you believe to be the facts, people think you’re making a joke. I don’t make a career out of humor, but I can imagine Robin Williams running up to a crowd and yelling “There’s a tsunami coming! Run for your lives!” and they’d all still be laughing when they were swept away. If most of us did that, at least some people would take off running. But Robin Williams has a family, including children, a house, all the usual stuff, and I’m sure he faces the usual frustrations in dealing with all of that. Don’t we all, though? There’s no reason to think he doesn’t need to do all the regular mundane things we all do to get by. Okay, he’s got more money, but a great many comedians really don’t, and they have the same problem as Robin Williams when it comes to being taken seriously. The real truth is, comedians are terribly serious people.
When Mark Twain said that he preferred “Heaven for the climate and Hell for the company,” people always laughed at it. But, I’m pretty sure that anybody would agree if he thought about it for a while. Judging by the sort of people who always seem virtuous and deserving of Heaven, it must be a pretty dull place. All the interesting folks apparently go the other way, and that’s what Mark Twain was saying. No joke, it’s no joke. But that’s not the most serious thing about humor, by a long shot.
The most serious thing about humor is making it work. You know somebody who can’t tell a joke, don’t you? They mess up the timing, screw up the words, blow the punchline, miss a paragraph of narrative, whatever it takes to screw up a joke. Imagine then if you’re trying to be consistently funny for an entire hour in front of an audience. They paid money to listen to you be funny. Now, you mess up a punchline, miss a paragraph, mess up the timing, whatever, and how do they feel about that? How do you feel when that person you know who always messes up when telling a joke keeps right on trying? Don’t’ you wish sometimes that you had a tub of tar and a chicken to pluck? Now imagine you paid that person to make you laugh. Want to throw in some bamboo under the fingernails now? Nobody would blame you. So, it’s important to know how comedy works, because even the best comedian can’t possibly come up with enough material off the cuff to get by. Sometimes you have to take something that’s pretty ordinary and make it funny by hook or by crook. Crook’s better in this case, by the way.
So, it behooves anyone who wants to be funny to learn what that means. Which, as it happens, is the topic of the next post.
Labels: Writing
Thursday, January 11, 2007
The Dread Pirate Who?
I've mentioned the movie The Princess Bride by William Goldman before. Here's another plug for this fine film: Goldman isn't Shakespeare, but only because it's not so easy to invent new words these days. As a story, it's amongst the best you'll see, and that's the truth. It's got everything, including Mandy Patinkin's favorite role (or so he has said) wherein he gets to say "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die" over and over. It's fun. And the movie also has a character often referred to, not exactly ever met, named the "Dread Pirate Roberts." Okay, Cary Elwey's character, Westly the Farm Boy, was the Dread Pirate Roberts for a time while the audience was out doing something else, but really you never see the man, and I won't tell you why so as not so spoil anything for you.
Now, yesterday I saw, on the History Channel, a program about the Real Pirates of the Caribbean. Some interesting tidbits: there has never been a single treasure map found, because the crew would never let the captain bury the loot. The ships were amazingly democratic: if the crew didn't like the Captain, they'd vote him out and replace him with someone else. (That doesn't make them good people, but it's an interesting tidbit, isn't it?) Also, pirates weren't at all romantic: they were the worst society had to offer. Some of them are of course quite famous. Henry Morgan, for whom the famous rum is named, was a privateer, but he set the tone. After Queen Anne's War, when England, Holland, Spain and France were all chummy again, the privateers were out of work, and that's when piracy as we've heard of it got started. Captain Kidd, infamous as he is, captured two (2) ships during his career. Blackbeard got a few more, about forty (40) in fact. But there was one pirate so fearsome that his very name struck terror into the hearts of people all over the world. He captured over seven-hundred (700) ships in his time. He was truly a dread pirate, and his name was, you ready for this?, Roberts. Bartholomew Roberts, better known as "Black Bart" Roberts. How about that, eh? The Dread Pirate Roberts is an historical figure, not a figment of Goldman's imagination. That just blew me away.
Of course, in the movie, the D.P.R. didn't come to a bad end. The real guy, attacked when his crew was too drunk to put up a fight, stood at the rail and dared the English to shoot him. They did: grapeshot, right in the chest. His crew got his body sunk in chains before it could be captured and displayed, then they surrendered. In the movie though, what happens is . . .
Oh, no, you just rent the thing for yourself if you want to know!
Steve
Now, yesterday I saw, on the History Channel, a program about the Real Pirates of the Caribbean. Some interesting tidbits: there has never been a single treasure map found, because the crew would never let the captain bury the loot. The ships were amazingly democratic: if the crew didn't like the Captain, they'd vote him out and replace him with someone else. (That doesn't make them good people, but it's an interesting tidbit, isn't it?) Also, pirates weren't at all romantic: they were the worst society had to offer. Some of them are of course quite famous. Henry Morgan, for whom the famous rum is named, was a privateer, but he set the tone. After Queen Anne's War, when England, Holland, Spain and France were all chummy again, the privateers were out of work, and that's when piracy as we've heard of it got started. Captain Kidd, infamous as he is, captured two (2) ships during his career. Blackbeard got a few more, about forty (40) in fact. But there was one pirate so fearsome that his very name struck terror into the hearts of people all over the world. He captured over seven-hundred (700) ships in his time. He was truly a dread pirate, and his name was, you ready for this?, Roberts. Bartholomew Roberts, better known as "Black Bart" Roberts. How about that, eh? The Dread Pirate Roberts is an historical figure, not a figment of Goldman's imagination. That just blew me away.
Of course, in the movie, the D.P.R. didn't come to a bad end. The real guy, attacked when his crew was too drunk to put up a fight, stood at the rail and dared the English to shoot him. They did: grapeshot, right in the chest. His crew got his body sunk in chains before it could be captured and displayed, then they surrendered. In the movie though, what happens is . . .
Oh, no, you just rent the thing for yourself if you want to know!
Steve
Labels: Writing
Sunday, January 07, 2007
The Democrats Will Never Pull It Off
Interesting title, isn’t it? And why do I say that? Well, because, even though the Democrats are just like the Republicans, they aren’t in an important way. That is that they aren’t being driven by people who are, as I read recently, disbelievers in objective reality. Other than that, one political party is about as likely as another to engage in dirty tricks, or obfuscate their true intentions, or arrange things to their advantage at the expense of, well, anyone who isn’t them, right? That’s normal, it’s been going on for thousands of years (according to Caesar, at least) and it’s mostly harmless if we keep our eyes on it. However, the Republicans lately (and not historically) have been under the thrall of some idealistic neo confederates who have put a huge skew into the traditional Republican platform of life, liberty, and General Motors. I have no problem with that platform, for the record, and I vote for individuals, not party platforms, anyway. I’ve cheerfully voted for members of both parties and a few independents over the years, and other than that Nixon dude, I don’t have any major regrets. (He just ticks me off when I think about it.)
That thrall has led the Republican party to be pretty darned much lock-step for the past few decades. Even for Republicans, who might be called the “Organized” party versus the Democrats, it’s been difficult not to toe the party line very closely. Apparently there are only three or four moderate Republicans who eat lunch together any more. That’s sort of sad, but as I mentioned before, I predict either a major shake-up in that party, or the formation of a new party to represent what used to be the Whig position, so I don’t think it matters a whole lot. Besides, I’m talking about those jokers across the aisle, the Democrats.
I’m not criticizing anyone for being a Democrat here. I’ve voted for Democrats, too, and frankly I’d vote for Jimmy Carter for Saint if they’d let me, but my real point is that the Democrats are not now, nor have they ever been, a lock-step sort of club. The thing is, they do things like (horrors) change their minds, and get all guilty looking and confess when they get caught. That is, they’re normally human, as opposed to anyone in a “lock-step” sort of organization. Which means, I think you can see, that they are unlikely to succeed in any major changes to anything much, although they’ll certainly frustrate our President, who so far as I’m concerned, deserves that and more. I’m surprised nobody’s offered to impeach him, all things considered, but maybe they really do mean to promote civility in Washington. Maybe. But whatever their intentions, unless and until they get taken over by hard-core idealists of whatever stripe, they’re never going to be able to mount the sort of effective, if nasty, campaign of propaganda and steamroller politicking that the Republicans have just had to give up. Which is why I say, the Democrats will never really pull it off.
That thrall has led the Republican party to be pretty darned much lock-step for the past few decades. Even for Republicans, who might be called the “Organized” party versus the Democrats, it’s been difficult not to toe the party line very closely. Apparently there are only three or four moderate Republicans who eat lunch together any more. That’s sort of sad, but as I mentioned before, I predict either a major shake-up in that party, or the formation of a new party to represent what used to be the Whig position, so I don’t think it matters a whole lot. Besides, I’m talking about those jokers across the aisle, the Democrats.
I’m not criticizing anyone for being a Democrat here. I’ve voted for Democrats, too, and frankly I’d vote for Jimmy Carter for Saint if they’d let me, but my real point is that the Democrats are not now, nor have they ever been, a lock-step sort of club. The thing is, they do things like (horrors) change their minds, and get all guilty looking and confess when they get caught. That is, they’re normally human, as opposed to anyone in a “lock-step” sort of organization. Which means, I think you can see, that they are unlikely to succeed in any major changes to anything much, although they’ll certainly frustrate our President, who so far as I’m concerned, deserves that and more. I’m surprised nobody’s offered to impeach him, all things considered, but maybe they really do mean to promote civility in Washington. Maybe. But whatever their intentions, unless and until they get taken over by hard-core idealists of whatever stripe, they’re never going to be able to mount the sort of effective, if nasty, campaign of propaganda and steamroller politicking that the Republicans have just had to give up. Which is why I say, the Democrats will never really pull it off.
Labels: Politics
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Pictures from the Marathon
Greetings, gentle readers and both fans --
As promised, I have obtained and posted a couple of photographs from the marathon. Well, four, to be exact. Well, five, actually. First the four, all proofs in low resolution. If you want to see them, just click here.
There are explanations by each of the pictures, which were produced by Marathon Photo, whose web site is at http://www.marathonfoto.com/home.cfm. I purchased a couple, including the one reproduced in larger size on the page linked to just above. I tried scanning one in at 1200 dpi, which worked, but which is so huge that most of my editing programs don't even display the thing, so I posted a version at 100 dpi, which is still better than the little proofs but not so cumbersone. Besides, this is the Internet, not Glamor Shots, right?
So, that's the very last about the topic of the New Las Vegas Marathon 2006. I may post something about future races, but you know, you always remember your first time.
-- Steve
As promised, I have obtained and posted a couple of photographs from the marathon. Well, four, to be exact. Well, five, actually. First the four, all proofs in low resolution. If you want to see them, just click here.
There are explanations by each of the pictures, which were produced by Marathon Photo, whose web site is at http://www.marathonfoto.com/home.cfm. I purchased a couple, including the one reproduced in larger size on the page linked to just above. I tried scanning one in at 1200 dpi, which worked, but which is so huge that most of my editing programs don't even display the thing, so I posted a version at 100 dpi, which is still better than the little proofs but not so cumbersone. Besides, this is the Internet, not Glamor Shots, right?
So, that's the very last about the topic of the New Las Vegas Marathon 2006. I may post something about future races, but you know, you always remember your first time.
-- Steve
Labels: Marathon
