Joseph Major, Louisville, Kentucky USA
jtmajor@iglou.com http://members.iglou.com/jtmajor
Editorial: About fifteen years ago, when the then county government turned over county judges, and the new one learned to some dismay that the old one had been less than careful about the balance between revenue and expenditure. Thus there were layoffs. The Chief Engineer asked me to prepare the listings of proposed layoffs. I had hopes that they would at least not tell me to prepare for my own firing. We were a little more fortunate than your former office; didn't have to lay anyone off. When they did have to cut people, last year when they state government abolished auto emissions testing because one local state senator said everyone passed anyway, so why bother, I was in a section that didn't have to worry, but some of our inspectors got bounced. . .
Best wishes for the new position and the prospects northwards. I understand about the insurance matter. Got a bill from the hospital last week for all the tests I took. It was a third of what I paid for the car. Fortunately the insurance paid all but a smidgen of it. I don't think I'm a profit center for the insurance company.
Yes, Noreascon was definitely fun. It will be our last Worldcon for a few years (see above about car and medical considerations).
"The Einstein Code": You do know that Einstein was a subscriber to Astounding? One wonders if he tried to apply relativistic considerations to the "trick issue". [For the fanhistorically challenged, the November 1948 issue of Astounding published a letter by Richard Hoen reviewing the November 1949 issue; the November 1949 issue contained the stories reviewed.] I never quite bought the theory in The Bible Code, but then I read about Ignatius Donnelly's work proving that Francis Bacon put a code in the works of "Shakespeare" revealing his authorship and other secrets. People then used Donnelly's methods to prove that Donnelly had written the works of Shakespeare.
"SteamPunk": I remember noting how "fannish" the Emily Dickinson scholars are, holding meetings where women dressed as Emily read her poetry to audiences (something she herself would never have done, but), dealers sell not only books but also other Dickinson-related stuff, and the like. And they would of course have considered the readers of that Star Wars trash to be wasting their time when they could be doing something serious. And I suppose much the same for the Dickens Faire.
"The Old, Old Story": The variation I ran across was for children, and featured the kindly old Professor, his niece and nephew, a dashing young pilot, and perhaps the amiable but old-fashioned gardener. The Professor had built his spaceship in the garden, see. This often bewildered American readers, who didn't know how big English gardens were. The jolly adventurers would take off one afternoon, fly to the Moon, do a splendid little tour, and then return, parking the spaceship in one corner of the garden. The children would have a little tale to tell, not that anyone much cared ... (Horrifyingly, that much is turning out to be a quite accurate prediction).
"A Visit to Jack Vance": which makes it clear why it took six years for the last part of Ports of Call to come out. I was surprised Vance could get away with writing such a short book these days. I note that Ports of Call is set in the Gaean Reach of many of Vance's earlier books. Not only the reader but the characters can visit such intriguing worlds as Alastor, Smade's World, Cadwal, and so on.
"Noreascon IV Diary": Yes, I noted the enclosures. In fact, I went down to the lobby and stepped outside one night, at about 11:30. Ever since at least high school, I have not gone one single day without going outside at least once, and I didn't want to break the chain.
Sophia Loren is seventy. I can think of more depressing thoughts but that takes time and effort.
"The Chorus Lines": E. B. Frohvet: Comics fandom, like many other fandoms, got started in Fandom. Lay your hands on a copy of the reprinted Xero. Bob Sabella: Live action movies tend to be dominated by other factors. This was why John Bloom started focusing on B-movies, which passed under the radar of financial control, being able to be conceptually controlled by one person. Who might not be any good but ...
Richard Dengrove: The portrayal of Nemo in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was taken from The Mysterious Island, where he is Prince Dakkar of Bundelkund, deposed through intrigue by the Raj. Trying to reconcile the chronologies however is quite a different matter.
Tim Marion: Saddam Husayn may have been called an atheist, but he also claimed to be descended from the Prophet. The Baath Party is officially secular, but it's like the man who tried to mollify an Ulster gunman by claiming to be an atheist, and was asked, "Ah yes, but are ye a Protestant atheist or a Catholic atheist?" All the atheists in Islamic countries are Islamic atheists.
Editorial: About fifteen years ago, when the then county government turned over county judges, and the new one learned to some dismay that the old one had been less than careful about the balance between revenue and expenditure. Thus there were layoffs. The Chief Engineer asked me to prepare the listings of proposed layoffs. I had hopes that they would at least not tell me to prepare for my own firing. We were a little more fortunate than your former office; didn't have to lay anyone off. When they did have to cut people, last year when they state government abolished auto emissions testing because one local state senator said everyone passed anyway, so why bother, I was in a section that didn't have to worry, but some of our inspectors got bounced. . .
Best wishes for the new position and the prospects northwards. I understand about the insurance matter. Got a bill from the hospital last week for all the tests I took. It was a third of what I paid for the car. Fortunately the insurance paid all but a smidgen of it. I don't think I'm a profit center for the insurance company.
Yes, Noreascon was definitely fun. It will be our last Worldcon for a few years (see above about car and medical considerations).
"The Einstein Code": You do know that Einstein was a subscriber to Astounding? One wonders if he tried to apply relativistic considerations to the "trick issue". [For the fanhistorically challenged, the November 1948 issue of Astounding published a letter by Richard Hoen reviewing the November 1949 issue; the November 1949 issue contained the stories reviewed.] I never quite bought the theory in The Bible Code, but then I read about Ignatius Donnelly's work proving that Francis Bacon put a code in the works of "Shakespeare" revealing his authorship and other secrets. People then used Donnelly's methods to prove that Donnelly had written the works of Shakespeare.
"SteamPunk": I remember noting how "fannish" the Emily Dickinson scholars are, holding meetings where women dressed as Emily read her poetry to audiences (something she herself would never have done, but), dealers sell not only books but also other Dickinson-related stuff, and the like. And they would of course have considered the readers of that Star Wars trash to be wasting their time when they could be doing something serious. And I suppose much the same for the Dickens Faire.
"The Old, Old Story": The variation I ran across was for children, and featured the kindly old Professor, his niece and nephew, a dashing young pilot, and perhaps the amiable but old-fashioned gardener. The Professor had built his spaceship in the garden, see. This often bewildered American readers, who didn't know how big English gardens were. The jolly adventurers would take off one afternoon, fly to the Moon, do a splendid little tour, and then return, parking the spaceship in one corner of the garden. The children would have a little tale to tell, not that anyone much cared ... (Horrifyingly, that much is turning out to be a quite accurate prediction).
"A Visit to Jack Vance": which makes it clear why it took six years for the last part of Ports of Call to come out. I was surprised Vance could get away with writing such a short book these days. I note that Ports of Call is set in the Gaean Reach of many of Vance's earlier books. Not only the reader but the characters can visit such intriguing worlds as Alastor, Smade's World, Cadwal, and so on.
"Noreascon IV Diary": Yes, I noted the enclosures. In fact, I went down to the lobby and stepped outside one night, at about 11:30. Ever since at least high school, I have not gone one single day without going outside at least once, and I didn't want to break the chain.
Sophia Loren is seventy. I can think of more depressing thoughts but that takes time and effort.
So she's 70? She's still Sophia Loren." A New Take on the Moon Hoax": It's the picky little detail that makes a fine hoax. Inviting the reader to "put it together" is another technique. I'm thinking of the Mark Twain story where he described the position of a petrified man, and if you read it carefully, you found out he was thumbing his nose.
"The Chorus Lines": E. B. Frohvet: Comics fandom, like many other fandoms, got started in Fandom. Lay your hands on a copy of the reprinted Xero. Bob Sabella: Live action movies tend to be dominated by other factors. This was why John Bloom started focusing on B-movies, which passed under the radar of financial control, being able to be conceptually controlled by one person. Who might not be any good but ...
Richard Dengrove: The portrayal of Nemo in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was taken from The Mysterious Island, where he is Prince Dakkar of Bundelkund, deposed through intrigue by the Raj. Trying to reconcile the chronologies however is quite a different matter.
Tim Marion: Saddam Husayn may have been called an atheist, but he also claimed to be descended from the Prophet. The Baath Party is officially secular, but it's like the man who tried to mollify an Ulster gunman by claiming to be an atheist, and was asked, "Ah yes, but are ye a Protestant atheist or a Catholic atheist?" All the atheists in Islamic countries are Islamic atheists.
Thanks for the great company at the April DeepSouthCon - and our latest fan editors' dinner!
posted by ;-p at 7:25 PM
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