PAMELA S. TURNER

I started reading Robert Jordan's WHEEL OF TIME series years and years ago. The first five volumes were excellent. And then...the cast of characters expanded, the books got longer and longer, and the plot slowed. I finally decided Robert Jordan must have a gargantuan mortgage and was deliberately drawing out the conclusion. I refused at that point to buy any more books, though I did check the new volumes out at the library. And then Robert Jordan died, leaving WHEEL OF TIME unfinished. He left behind some sort of outline, and so the publisher found a co-author to write the conclusion. When the guy posted a 5,000 word explanation of why the "final volume" would need to be broken into three 800-page books, I really wanted to go on strike. But my husband wanted the newest, THE GATHERING STORM, so in protest I bought a used copy. And guess what? Robert Jordan must've risen from the dead, because it's got his signature! OK, I guess now I have to read this magical tome.

I took my 4th kendo promotional test on Sunday. Kendo is Japanese sword fighting. Bamboo swords are used in practice, along with armor on the head, hands, and chest area; that's for full contact. There are also "forms" done without contact and armor, using wooden swords. I'm not very good at it, being slow and old and terminally uncoordinated, but it is great mental and physical exercise. If you want to see a sample, here is a really amazing kendo move at a Japanese championship. You don't see swords go flying very often! Here's a recent World Championship match. These guys are quick as rattlesnakes. And notice there is none of that big wide swinging you see in "Star Wars." Turns out the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.