Monthly Archives: June 2009

Spider’s Her Own Grandpaw!

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Marisa held by Terri 

Spider and Jeannie Robinson are grandparents:

Marisa Alegria da Silva arrived on planet Earth on May 28th at 1:56 PM Eastern Standard Time, weighing 8 pounds 5, long and lean and hairy and impeccably beautiful in all respects. Mother and child are both in good health, save for a minor fever that showed up at the last possible second, controlled easily by antibiotics.

I briefly considered leading this item by saying that the baby arrived in “the Usual Way” then decided, no, it’s too identified with Harry Chapin’s downer song “Cat’s in the Cradle”. The line is on my mind because early this morning I read aloud to Sierra the Winnie-the-Pooh story that introduces the characters Kanga and Roo. The line begins that story, but I never made the connection before despite mumble-cough years as a fan of the song. With all the other kiddy lit references in the lyrics it seems entirely possible Chapin intended that connection.

[Thanks to David Klaus for the story.]

Difference Engine Maintenance Manual

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Nearly two decades ago the Science Museum in London celebrated Charles Babbage’s 200th birthday – December 26, 1991 – by constructing a working version of the mathematician’s Second Difference Engine. He had designed it in 1847 to calculate and print mathematical tables. The 1991 attempt was the first to build this, or any other of Babbage’s Engines.

The completed Engine in its case was over 8 feet tall with a footprint of 12.65 feet by 6.65 feet. It weighed 5,860 pounds.

Another truly wonderful thing the builders did was prepare an Instruction Manual to Operate and Maintain Charles Babbage’s 2d Difference Engine. Can you imagine? As science fictional as it sounds, the whole thing is in earnest.

One segment particularly caught my eye.

Steady turning of the handle is required at a speed of approximately 8 to 10 calculations per minute (or 30 to 40 revolutions of the handle per minute). Slower or faster speeds will result in the Engine jamming.

This old fanzine fan realized that if Mr. Babbage and Mr. Gestetner had ever met, they’d have had something to talk about.

[Via James Hay.]

1984 Is 60

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George Orwell’s 1984 was published on June 8, 1949 – sixty years ago today – and Robert Harris told The Independent he thinks it’s the most influential book ever written.

On the other hand, Terry Pratchett reserves the hightest praise for Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows:

Orwell was ruined for me by being a set text. The Wind in the Willows had, by far, the most influence.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the link.]

2009 Phoenix and Rebel Award Winners

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The 2009 Phoenix and Rebel Awards were presented at Hypericon 5/DeepSouthCon 47, in Nashville, Tennessee , on May 6.

The Phoenix Award was won by horror writer Robert “Rick” McCammon of Birmingham AL.

The Rebel Award was presented to Randy B. Cleary of Huntsville, AL. Cleary’s accomplishments over the years include being president of the Southern Fandom Confederation and editing the SFC Bulletin, creating fan art, running convention art shows, and serving as Director-at-Large for ASFA.

Also presented was the Rubble Award, a faux award created by Gary Robe. This year its humor was a darker shade than usual, as it was given to the Chattacon Registration Department for consecutive years of hours-long registration lines. 

[Via Mike Kennedy.]

Simpson Wins SLF Grant

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Karen L. Simpson of Ann Arbor has won the Speculative Literature Foundation’s sixth annual Older Writers Grant which assists writers age 50 and up who are just starting to work on a professional level. Simpson is receiving a grant of $750.

The Speculative Literature Foundation is a non-profit organization that promotes the interests of readers, writers, editors and publishers in the speculative literature community. The Older Writers Grant is sponsored by Centric Advertising and ISFIC (Illinois Science Fiction in Chicago).

The full press release appears after the jump.

Continue reading →

A Comical Slant

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Here’s how a premeditated slant turned a news story into a lie. But it was for the sake of selling more comic books, so that makes it okay, right?

BOOM! Studios mid-May press release about one of its writer’s experience being screened by airport security begins:

Comics writer Mark Sable was detained by TSA security guards at LAX this past weekend when they discovered inflammatory material in a script for Sable’s new BOOM Studios miniseries Unthinkable. The comic series follows members of a government think tank that was tasked with coming up with 9/11-type “unthinkable” terrorist scenarios that now are coming true.

Lots of comics bloggers ran the press release verbatim as a news story, and so did SF Scope. David Klaus sent me a link to the place he’d read it, plus his outraged response: “It’s a chilling effect when in Los Angeles, of all places, possession of a script gets you flagged as a possible terrorist by semi-literate ‘security guards’.”

That’s exactly the reaction BOOM! Studios was angling for. Yes, once more the ignorant powers of tyranny are trampling the freedoms of a comic book creator — hurry and buy this forbidden stuff while you still can!

Now study the story more closely.  Was comics writer Mark Sable detained by TSA security guards at LAX because in his belongings he carried the script for Unthinkable, a comic about a government think tank tasked with imagining 9/11-type terrorist scenarios? Here’s how Sable told it in remarks made part of the press release:

Flying from Los Angeles to New York for a signing at Jim Hanley’s Universe Wednesday (May 13th), I was flagged at the gate for ‘extra screening’. I was subjected to not one, but two invasive searches of my person and belongings. TSA agents then “discovered” the script for UNTHINKABLE #3. They sat and read the script while I stood there, without any personal items, identification or ticket, which had all been confiscated.

The minute I saw the faces of the agents, I knew I was in trouble. The first page of the Unthinkable script mentioned 9/11, terror plots and the fact that the (fictional) world had become a police state. The TSA agents then proceeded to interrogate me, having a hard time understanding that a comic book could be about anything other than superheroes, let alone that anyone actually wrote scripts for comics.

I cooperated politely and tried to explain to them the irony of the situation. While Unthinkable blurs the line between fiction and reality, the story is based on a real-life government think tank where a writer was tasked to design worst-case terror scenarios. The fictional story of Unthinkable unfolds when the writer’s scenarios come true, and he becomes a suspect in the terrorist attacks.

There are things that just don’t connect. Sable was selected for “extra screening” before TSA knew he had this comic book script on him. Therefore, the script was not the cause of the screening. We don’t know what led to it except that it cannot have been prompted by something TSA had yet to discover in his belongings.

I’ve had experiences with extra screening myself. The suitcase I used on my 2004 trip to Turkey has, ever since, consistently triggered the interest of TSA baggage inspectors. That’s a nuisance, but it’s never made me miss my flight. And Sable doesn’t say he missed his flight, either. The press release uses the word “detained” to create an impression that what happened was more dramatic than actually was the case.

Sable and his belongings were given an “invasive” search. Sable doesn’t say it was physically forced upon him (indeed, he says he fully cooperated). Yet that’s where the reader’s imagination is invited to go, despite there being no reason to think TSA did anything more “invasive” than open his belongings and look in them.

That’s when TSA discovered the “inflammatory material,” Sable’s script containing terrorist scenarios. What’s TSA supposed to do at that point? Ask no questions? Ignore it? Because we know that nothing written on a piece of paper could be dangerous, right?

And they sat down and read his script! This is supposed to make me indignant, that TSA verified Sable’s explanation on the spot then let him board his plane?

This time it’s the TSA guys I feel sorry for and — as Ben Bradlee says about someone in All The President’s Men — I didn’t think that was possible.

[Thanks to David Klaus for the story.]

Shame, and Eternal Shame!

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At Save the Semiprozine Hugo you can educate yourself about a Hugo Awards category threatened with extinction whose fate will be decided by the 2009 Worldcon Business Meeting.

The site’s most interesting work is showing the zines you’d be saving it for, if you are so inclined, many of which are not particularly well-known despite their business aspirations.

Even the editor of a Best Fanzine nominee, John Klima (Electric Velocipede), has arguments to make in favor of keeping the category alive:

It seems unjust to take away from the people who work so hard on their publications, LOCUS included. LOCUS is a great magazine. I look forward to reading it every month. But I also look forward to a lot of the magazines/publications listed on this site. The people who put out these amazing publications deserve the recognition they get in this category.

Shame on you for wanting to take that from them.

The 700-word post simply chronicles Klima’s various personal reasons for wanting to save the semiprozine category, so agree or disagree, there is nothing incendiary except the last line – “Shame on you…”

“Shame on you” for what? Where is the shame in advocating the elimination of a Hugo category? Of all the unorthodox ideas science fiction fans entertain themselves with, we have to draw a line before we reach that one?

I’ve often thought it curious how the strategy of public shaming enjoys such currency in the internet culture, which otherwise goes out of its way to avoid the puritanical. Even if it’s a pallid and diffuse appeal to internet vigilantism, I expect that’s where Klima’s idea for closing with that phrase ultimately comes from.

Give Yourself the Chair

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Chris Pine as Kirk in the Captain's Chair 

Spock won’t be able to tell you to get out of the Captain’s Chair if you own it.

Classic Captain’s Chair replicas are now available for pre-order from Amazon.com (with an August 1 release date.)

The piece, which mirrors the original television prop, features left- and right-hand arm controls that set off modern lighting and sound effects, even playing popular phrases uttered by Capt. James Tiberius Kirk. The swiveling chair is made of wood (with a leather-upholstered seat), has an iron base, and weighs over 215 pounds. You don’t want to know how much it costs, do you?

They’re asking $2,999.99, but the replica is a bargain compared to Kirk’s original which sold at auction for $305,000 in 2002. (The original was subsequently displayed at the SF Museum in Seattle.)

Making your own is a less expensive choice and plenty of fans have, reports the New York Times in a lengthy article. Not only have these fans researched all the details of the classic Captain’s Chair, they have tried to psyche out why Kirk sat in such an aggressive posture. One fan simply concluded it’s not the most comfortable of chairs, so that’s why William Shatner always leaned forward. The Times, however, located a genuine expert with an idea of his own:

There is another possible explanation, suggested Eddie Paskey, who as Mr. Shatner’s stand-in on “Star Trek” spent much time in the chair during camera and lighting set-ups. “Early on, Bill sat down, leaned back, and it went over backwards,” he said.

[Thanks to David Klaus for the link.]

Harlan Ellison Refuses Cleveland Honors

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Fans would say Harlan Ellison is Cleveland’s most distinguished native-born writer and an obvious choice for the Cleveland Arts Prize. So why did Ellison reject his 2009 CAP for lifetime achievement in such a deeply offended tone, calling the award a fraud and a sham? According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Ellison objected to having to pay for his and his wife’s travel and lodging expenses from their Los Angeles home to Cleveland for the awards event in June.

He also objected to an unsigned letter he received from Cleveland Arts Prize Executive Director Marcie Bergman, which stated he would have only three minutes for his remarks….

“I confess to being startled by it,” Ellison said.

He also wondered privately why there was money for a cocktail party honoring the winners, but none for travel expenses. The reason, Bergman said in response to The Plain Dealer’s question, is that the party is being donated.

The Cleveland Arts Prize has been awarded annually since 1960. Former CAP President Diane Tittle tried to explain in a letter to the editor:

During my tenure as CAP’s leader, we purposely chose not to honor Cleveland-born artists living outside the area, in part because we did not have the resources to underwrite travel expenses, in part because we wanted to shine the spotlight on individuals who had made a commitment to living here. This policy, regrettably, barred Ellison from receiving an award. CAP’s desire to rectify that has resulted in the unfortunate misunderstanding reported in Sunday’s Plain Dealer (“Ellison turns down arts prize”).

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the link.]