It’s funny how often SF writers predicted the future. Verne imagined exploring space and the ocean floor, Bradbury predicted earbuds and my favorite, Robert Heinlein foresaw the Cold War, the Internet and helped invent water-beds. Still the development Heinlein predicted that I enjoy the most was in his novel Time Enough for Love. In that book, Heinlein not only foresaw the development of the e-reader, he predict...
Some say T. S. Eliot came up with the quote, “Good writers borrow; great ones steal.” Others say the line came from Oscar Wilde. Either way, every fiction writer knows that their finished work is based in part on the experiences and stories of others that they’ve heard about and read and the best way to avoid a copyright or invasion of privacy suit is to take the base material and then change it until it be...
A friend of mine died this week. A brain aneurysm no one knew she had ruptured without warning. She lost consciousness and passed away days later without ever regaining it. She was only 51. The morning after she passed away, I kept checking her Facebook page, hoping someone would post a retraction. Oh God, I wanted someone to post a retraction. But they didn’t. They can’t. My friend is gone and she is...
If you go to any college orientation, it’s easy to pick out the theatre major wannabes. While the business majors are making contacts and the proto-engineers are using their smartphones to game and/or calculate maximum spillage in their latest prank, the theatre majors are busy being theatrical. Other students wear clothes; the theatricals show up in layers. Layers and layers of rehearsal outfits which can be removed o...
New Years is such a peculiar holiday on the calendar. It doesn’t have religious nor historic connotations like most major holidays although it does contain elements of both. The drinking or party phase section of the population, commemorate it with the required bacchanalia and woozy recovery but the rest of us aren’t so sure of our role. We can review the year end lists or re-watch The Benny Goodman a...