1-31-87 The plan for the day was for Rob [McLean] to pick me up and drive to Mount Lemmon, where we would spend the day hiking, rockclimbing, and sightseeing. But it was rainy and cold, so I called Rob to suggest an alternative plan. Rather than go to the mountains in the rain or snow, why not wait for a few weeks until it gets hot down here [in Tucson]? Then Mount Lemmon will feel like an escape. Rob didn’t seem disappointed. Instead, we went to a movie this evening. We saw The Mission, an historically accurate portrayal of Jesuit mission life in 1750 Argentina. The main actors, Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons, were good in their roles as priests, and the scenery was spectacular. There were many shots of Iguacu Falls, including one in which Irons climbs the side of the falls freestyle. Later, De Niro, who had killed his brother, climbed the same rock face carrying a load of metal. This was his way of doing penance. Even for an agnostic, there was something poignant about this. I enjoyed the movie. Rob told me afterward, however, that he found it boring in parts. Oh well, you can’t please everyone.

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I spent the day outlining, drafting a handout on deontic logic for my students (it’s also intrinsically interesting), and watching the [Arizona] Wildcats defeat the [Arizona State] Sun Devils in a televised basketball game from McKale Center. The teams play each other twice a year.  In the four years that I’ve been here, the Wildcats have won seven of eight games. In football, the Wildcats have won all four games (and even the game before that, in 1982). Is that dominance, or what? The high temperature was only fifty-four degrees [Fahrenheit], a drop of twenty-eight degrees since yesterday. Yesterday we tied McAllen, Texas, for the highest temperature in the nation, the second such honor in four days.