Katie Ledecky Breaks Another Record -- August 9, 2014

Save for Bakken

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Katie Ledecky Breaks Another Record

I wasn't going to post this until I had a Bakken post but this is simply too exciting. Regular readers know the story of Katie Ledecky. AP via Yahoo!Sports is reporting:

IRVINE, Calif. (AP) — Katie Ledecky broke the world record in the 400-meter freestyle at the U.S. national championships Saturday night, becoming the first woman since Janet Evans to hold world marks in the 400, 800 and 1,500 freestyles at the same time.

This is the second time in less than 24 hours I have heard the name of Janet Evans.

The story continues:

The 17-year-old from Bethesda, Maryland, won in 3 minutes, 58.86 seconds. She bettered the old mark of 3:59.15 set by Italy's Federica Pellegrini at the 2009 world championships in Rome, when a raft of records were broken during the apex of the high-tech suit era.

Those suits were banned the following year, making world records harder to achieve.

One word: wow.

It was Ledecky's third win of the meet, having earlier claimed the 200 and 800 freestyles. She earned the chance to swim all three events at the Pan Pacific Championships in Australia this month. She will be a high school senior this fall, and later plans to attend Stanford.

Again: wow.

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A Note for the Granddaughters

A new book 

Every once in awhile one comes across a book that is simply the "cat's meow." For me, The Discovery of Middle Earth, Graham Robb, c. 2013, appears to be one such book. I have only begun taking notes now that I have read the first two chapters.

I happened to see it in an obscure location on the very top shelf -- almost out of my reach -- in the corner of the museum bookstore at the Getty Museum, Santa Monica, California, yesterday. I was simply looking for a new book to read; there were several possibilities but then I saw this one, and that ended the search. I was only going to buy one book and this would be the book.

I am only a few pages into the book but I can already tell I am really, really, going to enjoy this book for so many reasons.

The premise is this: while planning a cross-European bicycle riding route, the author claims to have discovered the Via Heraklean to be the Celtic backbone of Europe. I do not know if this is an original thought with this author, but early on he met with his editor/publisher and swore them to secrecy, when asking their opinion whether it was worth pursuing as a publishable book.

If that is the premise, I put this book among the handful of books that opens up an entirely new world for me:

• Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
• The Truth Will Out: Unmasking the Real Shakespeare, Brenda James
• Thh Discovery of Middle Earth, Graham Robb

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The Million-Dollar Man, Lana del Rey