Martina and Andy
I have a fourteen year old daughter, Martina, who, in addition to getting consistently good grades at St. Anthony High School, is a fine prose craftsman, a karate blue belt, and a budding flute virtuoso. Occasionally she does chores without complaining, and she has even been known to do one or two without being asked twice.
Ginkaku-ji Temple, Kyoto
As for hobbies, I like reading, especially nonfiction, exercise, especially aerobics and yoga, and the arts, especially music. In high school I played guitar, and as an adult I took up the piano. I'm pretty bad, really, but I still enjoy it and am getting better, slowly, over the years.
Since October 1997 I have been studying Japanese everyday for 30 to 60 minutes. As with the piano, aspiring to be truly competent would be unreasonable and frustrating, but continued effort leads to slow improvement, and there is something satisfying about exercising the pertinent part of the brain. Last year, from January through June, I was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Social and Economic Research, a research institute in Osaka University, which is located in the northern part of Osaka. It was great!
I also enjoy playing games of strategy. At various times in my life I have been intensely interested in chess, bridge, poker, and backgammon. Currently the game I devote the most time to is go. In Japan I started to learn about shogi, which is the Japanese descendant of the Indian game that evolved into Western chess.
Some Game Links
- The Bridge World - The world's classiest bridge periodical.
- Richard Pavlicek's bridge page.
- What Is
Go? - An introduction to one of the world's oldest and
most distinguished games.
Private correspondence with Andy McLennan can be sent via e-mail to
Last updated on June 25, 2001.