Monthly Archives: April 2013

Help Wanted

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Stonehenge needs a general manager and English Heritage will pay the right person 65,000 pounds ($99,000) a year.  

The successful candidate will have to keep the prehistoric site running smoothly and present a professional appearance with the Druids and new-agers who regularly visit the landmark.

“It is also important to ensure we keep dignity for the stones, and that the solstice celebrations aren’t in some way compromising the mystery and integrity of the stones,” English Heritage properties director Tim Reeve told The Daily Telegraph.

So if you’re looking for a career in rock…

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian for the story.]

Fox News on Kramer’s Jail Stay

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Atlanta’s Fox News station devoted five minutes of its April 16 broadcast to Ed Kramer’s conduct since being returned to jail in Georgia. Kramer has filed a new lawsuit against his Gwinnett County jailers for not accommodating his many disabilities.

The Fox anchor’s sneer and dismissive hand-wave as she utters the words “science fiction” in the introduction are precious, but I find the video report itself disturbing.

The station website’s description conveys its tone —

A Georgia man who successfully delayed his child molestation trial for more than a decade is now running up big medical bills in jail and filing hundreds of sometimes bizarre complaints.

Ed Kramer co-founded DragonCon, the popular science fiction convention held each year in Atlanta.

Gwinnett County’s sheriff tells FOX 5 I-Team reporter Randy Travis that some of Kramer’s complaints are out of this world.

Kramer has filed 214 requests and grievances since arriving back in Gwinnett County. Because Kramer sued them before, blaming a deputy’s assault for his neck injury, sheriffs video recorded the entire journey from Connecticut to Georgia.

Four of the five illustrations provided of Kramer’s “hundreds of bizarre complaints” are not “bizarre” in any real-world sense, merely attempts to reconcile jail life with strict Jewish dietary and hygiene rules or to celebrate the Sabbath. (The report shows Kramer telling someone, “Right after sunset I’ll be glad to sign anything you need me to.”) The fifth example is a menu request, not at all extraordinary, despite the Sheriff’s relish in rejecting it.

The requests are not bizarre. Whether Kramer’s beliefs are sincere is a separate question. A deputy said religious observances were not part of his incarceration 13 years ago. The Sheriff of Gwinnett County was openly skeptical that Kramer has the same requirements when he is not in jail. In contrast, a sympathetic account of Kramer’s beliefs — “Truth, Justice and Ed Kramer” — was published in American Jewish Life Magazine in 2004.

Kramer wore a neck brace and rode as a patient in an air ambulance when he was extradited from Connecticut and Gwinnett County in January. The county says it has paid $23,000 for Kramer’s medical bills since his return.

Kramer continues to argue that his medical condition makes him unable to stand trial. Or as the Fox reporter dramatizes, “To sit through this trial would endanger his life.”

[Thanks to Nancy Collins for the story.]

Mowatt Wins TAFF

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Jim Mowatt will be the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund delegate to LoneStarCon 3.

Here is TAFF co-administrator John Coxon’s press release —

It is the pleasure of the TAFF administrators to announce the end of voting in the westbound TAFF race for 2013. Theresa Derwin and Jim Mowatt have both been excellent candidates who have kept TAFFing through some tough patches, but unfortunately there can be only one delegate.

Jim Mowatt is the winner of this year’s Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund and will represent European fandom in a trip that takes him throughout North America. He will be appearing at LoneStarCon 3, in San Antonio, Texas, USA, amongst other fannish destinations yet to be confirmed.

The administrators would like to thank both candidates for their patience and good humour throughout the voting period. We wish Jim a fantastic trip to San Antonio and other amazing locales!

TAFF is the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund and has been sending sf fans across the Atlantic Ocean since 1952 or 1955, depending on who you ask. The official unofficial TAFF website is at taff.org.uk and we can be found on Facebook at facebook.com/groups/TAFFnews or on Twitter as @TAFFnews.

For the full race results, keep an eye on taff.org.uk or efanzines.com for the next edition of the TAFF newsletter, which will contain information on the EightSquaredCon fan fund auction as well as the full voter breakdown for this race.

Don’t look for the voting totals in the official announcement. You won’t find them. Even though they must have been calculated to decide the winner. After weeks of reminders to VOTE FOR TAFF VOTE FOR TAFF VOTE FOR TAFF it’s a bit anticlimactic not to know how close the race was or how many fans participated.

Boston Comic Con Casualty of Lockdown

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This weekend’s Boston Comic Con has been postponed, derailed by the city-wide lockdown imposed while police searched for the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect.

The convention website announced:

Due to the unfortunate events that have transpired here in Boston, a lock down has been put into effect until further notice, causing the Hynes Convention Center to suspend all events. As such, The Boston Comic Con will be rescheduled to a date in the not too distant future.

All people who purchased advanced tickets on line will have their tickets honored at the rescheduled show. If for some reason, you can not come to the show on that date, we will refund your ticket.

Please, we ask for your patience, understanding, and cooperation. We appreciate your loyalty, and continued support for the Boston Comic Con. Unfortunately, this situation is beyond our control.

[Thanks to Michael J. Walsh for the story.]

Girl Genius Thrilled Not To Be On Hugo Ballot

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A recent installment of Girl Genius delivers fresh evidence that Phil and Kaja Foglio like marching to the beat of a different drummer. The pair are ecstatic their comic is not a 2013 Hugo nominee —

“How exactly is this GREAT? We were only supposed to sit out ONE year!”

“Don’t you see? It means we’ve shown them, shown them all! …The Best Graphic Story category is REALLY NEW, and WE won the FIRST THREE! So SOME people said there was no point to the award, since WE’D just keep winning it – which was actually pretty nice of them—“

The Foglios withdrew Girl Genius for 2012 only, but are quite content to promote the health of the new category by leaving the glory to others for another year.

On the other hand, would they be drawing attention to the news in this way unless they were worried the trend might become permanent?

Donna Amos Passes Away

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Louisville fan Donna Amos passed away March 25 at the age of 66. She is survived by Ken, her husband of 33 years, and her son Steve.

An obituary notice posted in the Louisville Courier-Journal adds:

Donna received her undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Louisville and worked as a teacher in both the Fort Knox and New Orleans school systems. She was a dog enthusiast and was actively involved in Afghan Hound Rescue for 30 years. She served as president of the New Orleans Afghan Hound Club and was on the Afghan Hound Club of America’s Board of Directors. She also enjoyed painting, reading, and traveling.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story, via G. Patrick Molloy.]

NYRSF Readings for 5/7

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Evie Manieri and Leanna Renee Hieber will participate in the NYRSF Readings curated by Ron Hogan on May 7.

Evie Manieri has a degree in Medieval History and Theatre from Wesleyan University. Blood’s Pride is her first novel. She lives in New York City.

Leanna Renee Hieber is the author of award-winning Gaslamp Fantasy, such as the Strangely Beautiful saga, the Magic Most Foul saga and the forthcoming Eterna Files from Tor. She has been featured in anthologies such as Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells.

Ron Hogan helped create the literary Internet when he launched Beatrice in 1995. His latest website, The Handsell, recruits authors and independent booksellers to make personalized recommendations for readers based on the books they already love.

This session of the NYRSF Readings takes place May 7 at the SoHo Gallery for Digital Art (see info below). Doors open 6:30 p.m. Suggested donation: $7.

The full press release follows the jump.

  Continue reading →

Send Cards and Letters to Larry Tucker

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Larry Tucker, the long-time Michigan fan who has been in a nursing home since he suffered a serious stroke two years ago, was hospitalized at the beginning of April for colon surgery. Reports immediately after the surgery were favorable. He was expected to be returned to his nursing home after a week recovering in the hospital.

Tucker chaired the 1978-1980 ConFusions in Ann Arbor. He is best known for creating Uncle Albert’s Electric Talking Fanzine (on cassette) and a similarly named video edition. He was a fannish video pioneer, as Leah Zeldes explained to readers of “The Clubhouse” on the Amazing Stories blog  —

Larry, an avid and talented video buff at a time when video meant U-matic tape, chronicled most of the early cons, as well as making a variety of other fannish videos, notably “Big Bird Eats Moon,” which chronicled a Stilyagi lunar eclipse party as told by a cultural anthropologist; “The Thing That Ate Gorgonzola State University,” real-life interviews with students about the news that the earth was being eaten by a black hole; and the full-length feature “FAANs,” starring just about every well-known Midwestern fan of the period: the ultimate sf con as a parody of “Jaws.”

These days Katherine Becker of Ann Arbor’s Stilyagi Air Corps visits Tucker and keeps up his connection with fandom. She relayed news of his surgery to Leah Zeldes, who in turn would like to encourage people to drop Larry a line at his permanent address:

Regency at Whitmore Lake
8633 North Main St
Whitmore Lake, MI 48189

Leah says –

I don’t think he can read — the stroke he had two years ago was pretty devastating — but Katherine will read the mail to him when she visits, and post them on his wall. It would be nice if he got a bunch of cards and letters, not just now but on an ongoing basis.

Leah would also like to locate more copies of Larry’s videos so they can be digitized and preserved. She obtained a copy of “FAANs” and has someone working on it, but says his other tapes are in an unknown state. If anyone has copies of “The Thing That Ate Gargonzola State University,” “Big Bird Eats Moon,” “Uncle Albert’s Electric Talking Fanzine” (audio tape) or “Uncle Albert’s Video Fanzine,” send a note to File 770 – mikeglyer [at] cs [dot] com – and I will put you in touch with her.

SF Sidebar about the Texas Explosion

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Westblom bookUlf Westblom, a Swedish fanzine publisher and sf author in the 1960s and now an MD in Texas, was interviewed in the Swedish daily Expressen about the fertilizer factory explosion.

Ahrvid Engholm and John-Henri Holmberg say Westblom edited the fanzine Mentat (first issue 1967) and helped organize the Swedish Science Fiction Society. These days Westblom lives in the vicinity of West, Texas.

Here’s what Westblom told the media, as deciphered with an assist from Bing Translator: 

“It is a tragedy,” he said.

Ulf and his wife Inga-Lill Westblom run a vineyard outside of Waco, Texas.

Only 20 minutes away is the town of West where a large explosion occurred in a fertilizer factory during the night of Wednesday.

Ulf Westblom knows several people in the small town.

“It is a really nice town. It is a great tragedy, “he said.

During the evening and night, he has followed the news on television.

– They say on television that several hundred are injured. There are many helicopters gone to trauma wards at hospitals in Waco, says Ulf Westblom, who until last year worked as the Chief doctor at a Veterans Hospital in Waco.

Ulf Westblom has itself been in West several times.

– Many Czech immigrants live in West, and the city is famous for its Czech pastries.

Ulf and Inga-Lill Westblom

Ulf and Inga-Lill Westblom

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]

Ford Promotes 42 on Jimmy Kimmel

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“42” isn’t the answer to the ultimate question, it’s Jackie Robinson’s uniform number and the title of Harrison Ford’s latest movie. While promoting the film on Jimmy Kimmel Live, he pretended a belligerent unwillingness to answer any Star Wars questions until Chewbacca stood up in the audience and provoked Ford into a profanity-laced tirade. 

 “He knows what he did,” Ford shouts at Chewbacca before storming off the set. “I’ll see you in hell!”