This week(end) in training, ancestry and film

I sort of took the week off, trying to get my knees healed and the weather was bad enough that I felt good about the decision. I ran long and slow on the weekend.


Monday: 4 miles in 38. Saw raccoons and vole tracks and smelled a skunk. Spring's coming!
Tuesday: 6 in 55
Wednesday: 0
Thursday: 0
Friday: 3 in 27 Started seeing mounted police. Two runners were attacked in Phalen Park over the past week. That's two women I know, robbed and beaten in my back yard.

Saturday: 28 in 4:59. Had knee pain at 9 miles, so the days off didn't help. Songs stuck in my head: "Old White Lincoln" by Gaslight Anthem (great song), "Beat On the Brat" by the Ramones and, of course, "Gimme Back that Fillet-o-Fish" jingle.

Sunday: 20 in 3:30. My first back-to-back long runs of the year. This was strangely comfortable, my knees were fine and I stripped down to shorts and T-shirt after two hours. So many strollers and dogs it was hard to find room to run. I know now I'm going to finish the Zumbro 100.

St. Patrick's Day

Best St. Patrick's Day joke: "What's Irish and sits in the sun? Paddy O'Furniture!"

It's always interesting to me that the Irish, who celebrate the day as a minor religious holiday, are baffled by the drunken revelry Irish-Americans and especially non-Irish-Americans have made the day. It's about immigrants. No one in Ireland eats corned beef, but a century ago, Irish immigrants lived on it as it was cheap and available. The United States was begun by people saying that they weren't British any more, but American, and it was the norm for everyone to try to blend in; it took the Irish to say: let's not forget our ancestry.

So what's the origin of the strange name Quick? I'm a typical mongrel - half German, fourth Dutch, eighth French, sixteenth English, sixteenth Scots-Irish. The Quicks come from the Netherlands, but the letter Q isn't Dutch (the name was often spelled Kwik) and all the Dutch Quicks are descended from Ben Quick, an English sailor in the 1700's. The name's English and means exactly what you think it does.

What feels like home for me are neighborhoods where there are cottages by a lake, with twisting hilly roads and many gardens, which describes my neighborhood, the town of Excelsior and the Linden Hills neighborhood in Minneapolis. In Europe, I love the north coast of France, the south coast of England and the north coast of Spain - where there are apple orchards, dairy cows and fields of grain and with large Celtic populations, just like where I live.

My Film Library

I spent the week checking out the 3-D film festival at the Parkway Theater. I thought of reviewing the films, but they've all been reviewed by people who know more than I do, so I thought I'd list the books that taught me what I know instead.

"Cult Movies I, II, III" and "Cult Movie Stars" by Danny Peary. Danny knows his stuff. Where else will someone critique the hard-core porn of John Holmes and then Godard's student films?

"Rough Guide to Cult Movies." A good companion to the above.

"Revenge of the Creature Features Movie Guide" by John Stanley. An amazingly complete guide to horror and science fiction.

"The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film" by Michael Weldon. The granddaddy of odd movie guides, it's still valuable.

"Golden Turkey Awards" and "Son of Golden Turkey Awards" by Harry and Michael Medved. Before becoming a right-wing nut job, Mike wrote about "Robot Monster" (in 3-D!) and "Cat Women of the Moon."

"Re/Search #10: Incredibly Strange Films." An underground classic, it has interviews with the likes of Frank Hennenlotter and Ted Mikels and other odd angles of odd films.

"Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In" by Joe Bob Briggs. Joe Bob had the brilliant idea of making the movie-going experience more important than the film. Who else would give a positive review of "Bloodsucking Freaks?"

"The Phantom's Ultimate Video Guide." The worst-organized book on the list, it's also the easiest to read. He rates "Plan 9 From Outer Space":****!

"Video Trash and Treasures I, II" by L.A. Morse. These nicely fill in some gaps in the others, including the delicious "Desperate Schoolgirls," which isn't even in the Internet Movie Database!

"The Official Razzie Movie Guide" by John Wilson. When only the very worst will do.

"Bad Movies We Love" by Edwards Margulies and Stephen Rebello. A good reminder that enjoyable trash films don't have to be low-budget genre films.