Thursday, January 29, 2009

Joseph Major, Louisville, Kentucky

http://members.iglou.com/jtmajor

[Comments on] The Altitudinous Route: I see you felt about Kansas about what we did. Kansas rest stops in particular are minimal. In Kentucky, in Indiana, we are used to finding a substantial building, with brochures describing local and not so local sights, computerized maps of the weather, even a friendly attendant. In Kansas, except for the first stop after the border, there was nothing. The building had only restrooms. And the soft drink machines were behind bars!

I think it was during WWII that somebody distributed replicas of the Liberty Bell, to inspire patriotism and national spirit. Kentucky's is at the Old Capitol building, a place I know well from my days in Frankfort. (I knew the New Capitol building even better, having played in it many times.) We saw one other replica at the Truman Museum.

The Richthofen Castle is at 7020 East Twelfth Avenue.

[Comments on]
Challenger 28

Editorial addition: And for Yowler the cat, who shouted and mewled beneath our windows, annoying us, until we got our wish, and wished we had never wished it. Worse yet, two days before the big storm, someone came along and helped himself to Tim Lane's and Elizabeth Garrott's cat Shadow, who was on a leash in front of their house. Their other cat, Neville, is noting the vacancy. Shadow used to jump up in my lap.

Want a few more cats? Our gift!

Critters Sheryl Birkhead Has Known and Loved: For some reason, one of my grandmother's chickens used to chase me away from the barn. Lisa's sister had a similar conflict with one of her great-grandmother's hens. Ma Hat took a hatchet and dealt out the supreme measure of punishment, then had chicken soup for little Esther's soul.

Lisa has her stories of Digger and Shaggy. I had issues with Mother's poodles, which never seemed quite to get used to the idea that I lived there too.

Resnick: At this writing, it looks as if Curlin will skip the Breeders' Cup. In the unlikely event that Lisa doesn't mention it, she was dubious about Big Brown all along, because of those quarter cracks in his hooves. In fact, she was worried that he would through a fluke do well, and then those bad feet would be bred into the next generation.


Right now, she is seeking out pictures of Bernadini foals, noting their resemblance to the sire, and thinking with joy of 2010 and 2011 and ...We may try to go see him again at Darley, in Lexington, on Martin Luther King Day. Last time it was 20 degrees before wind chill.

SF Entering the Great Divide: In further defense of Green's thesis, I note that a greater proportion of SF/F works these days are marketed as romances. Perhaps because interstellar stories work down to Wars of Incomprehensibly Powerful Beings, and planetary stories are The Cyberpunk Kid ... neither of which holds at least this reader's interest. Then you have alternate histories, which are all over. One (a particularly unlikely and politically and ethnically biased one) won all the awards this year.

Between the Candle and the Star: I would point out that fanzine panels are always scheduled during the opening ceremonies, just before the closing ceremonies, against the GOH reading, during the Masquerade ... small wonder that fanzine fans feel shut out.

New Dog ... Old Tricks: I don't think I could ever live with a dog again (see above about my mother's poodle) but Pepper looks so darned cute!

The Future Is Almost Here: All one has to do to see the misguided optimism of Kurtzweil's thesis (and hence of Singularity predictions) is to watch 2001. We do not have regular spaceflights to the Moon. Bob Tucker was disappointed, as we all well know. Benford pointing out how people won't all fall in line, but will think differently, is a needed corrective that few seem to consider. Indeed, citing Blade Runner is apropos. It's used as an example of the two-tier society, the grand glorious futurians hovering above a crowded underclass. I thought of this when reading about Hong Kong.

Edison's Conquest of Mars: Which was one of the first examples of fan fiction. Serviss was also one of Edison's assistants, so this might also be one of the first Mary Sues. (Also, I get the impression that it was based on a pirated edition of War of the Worlds which set the invasion in New Jersey, forty years before Orson Welles.)

From Fan to Filthy Pro, in Ten Easy Steps: It hasn't worked for me.

Lord of the (Show) Rings: There is a Dog Show Channel! There is! I'd come into the bedroom and Lisa would have the television on, showing a dog show. I said "You've got it on the Dog Show Channel again." She'd say, "There's nothing else on," and then, "There's no Dog Show Channel!" If there isn't a Dog Show Channel, how come you can find a dog show on 24/7?

The Pride of Lions: And my cousin Bob married for the fifth time at the age of 65, to a woman younger than his own daughter. Eight years later, they had a son.

What took him so long? Never mind. I know.

"Gangway! Hot Organ!": The story of an effort so superlatively overwhelming that it overcomes the ability to compensate. What were the responses in SFPA 101 like? The thought boggles the mind!

A Hideous Confession: They're still doing those sorts of books. Now, they're sold in mainstream bookstores, with fabulous publicity campaigns, richly textured covers, and no shame. They're called Romances.

The Chorus Lines: Brad W. Foster: I get the impression that Comic-Con is a giant bazaar for popular-culture items of which comics are a small and declining part. One consumes, not participates.

Bob Kennedy: And now the "crazy complainant" has a college degree. To many people the Duke Lacrosse Team case was more about class than about race, since the stripper was also attending the local community college, which put her at odds with the students at an elite university.

Me: Truman Capote was born Truman Streckfus Persons. Ohhhh I am sooo sorrrry ..

Lloyd Penney: Yes, you are specifically invited to the Fan-eds' Feast. We want to celebrate you!

Not only fan editors but contributors and members of the Chorus are invited. Look for an announcement of the site and date of the next Fan-eds' Feast in a Zine Dump RSN.

Milt Stevens: When Clarke introduced Asimov at the Mensa meeting in London, taking regard to Asimov's aversion to flying which led him to take a liner from New York to London, he said that he had scheduled a special showing of "A Night to Remember" for Asimov, and afterwards they would discuss fun things to do in lifeboats. Do they show Titanic on those Caribbean cruises (like the one my nephew took to his wedding, and his wife left him two months later), and if they do, do they post security guards forward to keep dim-bulb couples from standing on the bow shouting "I'm flying, Jack!"?

Liz Copeland interview: RiverCon '75 was maybe my second or third con. Maybe we ran into each other. Or maybe not, that was when I drank a pint of wine and couldn't get Tim Lane, Grant McCormick, and Bruce Gardner to believe I had seen Poul Anderson. Even though he was there.

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1 Comments:

Blogger pablo said...

hello my names is pablo major im fron argentina In can chering parents, my inglish ist nou very good, sorry, busco a mis familiares major, tank you

12:42 PM  

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