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The Ellison Bulletin Board

Comments Archive - 09/14/00 to 01/31/01

I am heading over to Chicago Comics meself after work. I just love that place. Their European albums section is to die for.

Alejandro,

Just grabbed-up Batman Gotham Knights 13 from the Loop Graham Crackers Comics, they had plenty on-hand.
Haven't read HE's story yet but its "look" is a nice shade of noir.

Just a quick reminder, kids. The Batman: Gotham Knights issue containing Unca Harlan's Batman story hits your nearest comic book store today. Am getting mine this afternoon. Hopefully, I'll be able to post a reaction to it in this here board later tonight. Now, go harass your local comic book store's version of Mr. Cat Piss Man (now, let's see how many of you got that reference).

Alejandro

*** Peg / Charlie *** Thanks guys. I wouldn't take something like that to Harlan. It's not even really worth my time let alone anybody elses. Ebay is a lost cause. We each [the dealer and myself that is] have vey good ebay ratings and so they'd chalk it up to geek wars. I think I'm going to content myself with a copy of my original going to the winning bidder.

Barney - You, Rude??? Never.....
If you want to get the lister's attention and be taken seriously, you could provide the listing to Harlan and let him take reprisals at his work being misrepresented (whether purposeful or not). *wince* Then again, that might be considered cruel and unusual punishment by our judicial system.
Alternatively, I think most of the auction sites do not take kindly to *known* misrepresentations (as opposed to plain ole mistakes). You should be able to email Ebay regarding the situation; minimally I think they'll give the guy a warning.
Peg

Barney, I know a good lawyer if you wanna sue him/her (-:

*** Hey Gang *** Is it me? Am I really nuts? I throw myself on your [usually] tender mercies. This is currently up on e-bay -CAVE OF MIRACLES and ..* Harlan Ellison 1957
Item #1406749440

description -
Well this one is just chock full of Harlan Ellison stories. This is FANTASTIC SCIENCE FICTION published in September, 1957. It has one story with Harlans name on it and 1 or maybe 2 under a pseudonym. The story by E.K. Jarvis is a house name used by Harlan Ellison, Paul Fairman and Robert Silverberg and the one by Adam Chase is acually Milton Lesser. That should help make the list of titles and authors make more sense (maybe?).

THE CAVE OF MIRACLES by Harlan Ellison

A HOME AMONG THE STARS by E.K. Jarvis (aka one of those 3 but probably Harlan since he already had 2 in it and that guy wrote a lot. He had published something like 150 stories in his first year).

THE BREEDER by P.F. Costello (this is another house name so who really knows but I have a suspicion this is a 4th by Harlan)

DAMN THE METAL MOON by Ellis Hart aka Harlan Ellison

SAUCER! SAUCER! by Henry Slesar (this one is a real person....but I am beginning to wonder).

THE EXQUISITE NUDES by Adam Chase aka Milton Lesser

Well enough of the secret identity game. The cover is by Edward Valigursky. I like a lot of the old Fantastic SF covers but the best covered ones tend to have less sought after authors for some reason but i am going to put a few on just for their covers.

That's the description he wrote and here is my letter to him -

Hello,

I couldn't help but wince at your description on this item. While "Cave of Miracles" and "Damn the Metal Moon" are indeed by Harlan almost everything else is wrong.

>A HOME AMONG THE STARS by E.K. Jarvis (aka one of those 3 but probably Harlan since he already had 2 in it and >that guy wrote a lot. He had published something like 150 stories in his first year).

This was Silverberg. Not Harlan. Also, Harlan had 3 sales in 1955 [published in'56] and about 45 sales in 1956. 1957 was the year with over 100 sales. Exact figures will vary depending on the source and if your counting reprints but both the Swigart and Wyatt bibliographies will back me up on this.

>THE BREEDER by P.F. Costello (this is another house name so who really knows but I have a suspicion this is a 4th by >Harlan)

I know. Not Harlan. Not even close. So we have, not 4 Harlan stories, not 3 Harlan stories, but 2. If you detect some ire in my tone it's because this is about 50th time in the last three years I've found dealers miss-attributing stories as works by Harlan. It's not as though there is any shortage of stories actually written by Harlan. Also, there are bibliographies of Ellison and Silverberg available on-line so it's not as though you had to guess. You simply chose to. Your posting does Harlan, and Robert Silverberg, and the memory of John Sladek a tremendous diservice. I wish you would pull and relist this item correctly. If not I will make a point of letting your bidders know that this is not nearly the item you are trying to pass it off as.

Sincerely,

Barney Dannelke

and while that letters tone was a bit patronizing I really don't think it was the product of a deranged mind. Here was his public response attached to his listing...

I just received a rude email from some fanatic who seems to have leaped to some weird conclusions on his own that I have misconstrued the item. I said there was only 2 stories for sure by Harlan Ellison and one of the stories used a pseudonym named Ellis Hart. Then I said two of the other stories were under house names that were at least used once by him and one of them I even supplied the other two writers but the last one was used by several people. I never claimed all 4 were by Harlan but was amused by the fact that the house names used were once used by him. I know the rest of you are not burnt out neurons losing orbit like this guy was but when he threatened to email everyone who would bid on it that I was ripping them off kind of got me a bit bent. Once a month I get an email from a nut case like this but that is life on eBay such as it is. I am sorry about the addition but it seemd necessary to at least take some shot at the burn out and save some of us some grief.

There you have it. What say you?

re; "Incognita, Inc." My daughter [age 13] totally got the "Louie, Louie" reference thanks to a "Saved By the Bell" episode! And they say that TV is a vast wasteland - HA!

Oh yeah, and favorite line from Incognita, Inc., and don't ask me why, but it is, reads to the effect that the place was so squeaky clean, that one needed permission from the condo. association to import a sinful act.

Australian

For those who didn't order Dreaming Down Under from Australia a while back, it has now been released in the US in HB. Oh yeah, HE does the intro. and it has been called the Austrailian Dangerous Visions. I believe it even has 33 stories and an intro. by the editors (Dann & Webb) and an afterword by the author.

Jeez - ICON, DragonCon, the Con Formerly Known As Mad Media - so many miles, so little time. Just today I received an unsolicited mailing from the University of Wisconson - Madison about a digital video course. Coincidence? Sign? I think I need to get the Road Warrior jacket dry-cleaned...

*** Hey Gang *** Don't want to be hogging the forum but here is the update on John's Convention with Harlan. Like My Dinner With Andre" but with more talking...
John writes;
Barney,

Hmmmmm. Okay, let's see if we can get things a bit more clear.

The event is MadCon 2001, and our GOH is Harlan Ellison. We have also
confirmed with Peter David and Jim Frenkel, and we are waiting on some
others. The event will be held October 19-21, 2001, at the Alliant Energy
Center (formerly the Dane County Expo Center) and the Hawthorne Suites
(directly attached) in Madison, Wisconsin.

We're still hammering out some details with Hawthorne Suites (such as their
phone number for registrations!), as the hotel is not yet open; it is
scheduled to open in May of this year, and we will have the entirety of the
hotel for the con (all 140 rooms). The room rate should be no more than $80
per night, and I will forward details when I have 'em.

Our Charity for the event is the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), which
was one of the charities we supported during Mad Media 5. As to the reason
that this con is called MadCon instead of Mad Media, it has nothing to do
with copyright infingement and more to do with internal problems. Suffice to
say that Mad Media is no longer a going concern, but that most of the people
working on MadCon had some degree of involvement with Mad Medias 5 & 6.

Other features of MadCon will include LAN gaming, CCG tournaments, a huge
dealer's room, a charity auction, a Space Rave 2001 & Masquerade Dance, as
well asa the usual panels, talks, and videos. Our big Saturday night event
will be the Banquet with the Guests.

Saturday Night Banquet with the Guests: On Saturday night, we'll have a
special banquet for our Guests with a limited number of seats available to
convention members. Each of the tables will have one of our Guests, so it
will give our members a chance to talk with our Guests in a more relaxed
setting. The Banquet will also feature a speech by our Guest of Honor,
Harlan Ellison. Tickets for the event cost $40. Seating choice will be
based upon ticket number, first come, first served, based on postmark (so
send in your registration now!). As our first flyers with this announcement
are just now going to start going out, the best numbers are obviously still
available.

The convention memberships for the entire weekend are $30 until April 1, then
$35 until June 15, then $40 until September 20, then $45 at the door. I
encourage early registration: we need the money! If you want to check over
some of the details, our website is at www.madcon.org. If you simply want to
send us money right away (to which we would have no objection), please make
checks payable to USS Andromeda and send it to:

MadCon 2001
P.O. Box 2601
Madison, WI 53701-2601

And, of course, if you have any specific questions, you can always email me
directly.

Later,

Jon C. Manzo
MadCon 2001 co-chair

** Alejandro ** I'll be in Tortolla for Thanksgiving with any luck and will have to transfer in P.R. but that's just a layover. Tortolla is "close" to P.R. if that counts.

The L.A. P.D. story was some other unfortunate SOB. I talked to him and that story is all true and more. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. With my shaved head and general demeanor they would have just beaten me to death in the parking lot and asked questions later. Which is OK by me as I've often said, "publicly and violently" is how I want to go. Still, that was somebody elses adventure in wonderland.

I just got this link in my email -http://www.scifi.com/scifiction

They're "reprinting" "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" at their website. It's a nice job in that they got the computer paper tape correct with no bad widows [proofreading term] and AM's column of type is a different color which is sort of a 35 year old running joke between Harlan and Fred Pohl at this point. Plus a short bio/biblio piece courtesy of Rick and Webderland. Nice work.

***Maggie*** Ixnay on the "Ookbay of Oreverfay". Bad juju. Check out "Bugf*ck" elsewhere on this site for a really detailed explanation.

Barney:

So I was. I was the kid -kid?, who am I fooling- who asked Harlan about Borges and his passion for South American writers. And yes, I think I remember your tale now. Weren't you the one who was mistakenly arrested by the LA police and Harlan had to intervene in a very amusing way?

Does that mean that you are going back to Puerto Rico this fall? The wife and I may be visitng the island in late October. It depends on what happens to me this year career-wise. I am looking for a new job. Anyone out there in need of a good film or music critic.reporter?

Alejandro

*** Alejandro *** Mad Media in the fall - Puerto in the summer - L.A. in the winter -I'm like freakin VISA card baby, I'm everywhere you want to be... [but seriously]

I can't hammer that hotel too bad - the banquet was a riot and the heat was because they had a freakishly warm fall weekend up there and the hotel had just shifted over to Wisconsin winter mode and they did finally give us a break on the room rates as a result of that fiasco. Were you at the Sunday AM Ellison talk? Tim and I were in the front and that's when Harlan started talking about me and the process of biography. That was a strange moment, let me tell you. That was also the con where I gave Harlan copies of his work in Greek, which he had never seen, and was none to happy about. For my next trick I will stick my big shiny head in this here lions mouth and shout "boo!"

***RICK*** Seth just wrote me so just add the other one to the missing HERC list.

Hey All -

This is undoubtedly old news, but, while randomly surfing around at amazon.com, I found some book about The Last Dangerous Visions. The Book on the Edge of Forever. Kind of a clever title, but it seems like a lame concept for a book. Anybody know any more about this?

Thanks
Maggie

Barney:

You were at Mad Media two years ago? Damn, so was I. Wasn't that a rather unpleasant place to hold a con, stuck in the middle of nowhere in Madison? We are talking Norman Bates motel here, people. I still remember how stifling hot my room was. I kept wondering how Harlan, Susan and Neil were faring with the miserable conditions (for those of you who missed out on the affair, the con was held in some Marriott, I think it was, that was set for demolition months after the con was held. Stuck close to some highway about thirty miutes away from downtown Madison, none of the rooms had any air conditioning. I must admit though that the hotel restaurant served some pretty decent food for a place that was going under.)

Hey Gang - Susan just sent me a couple more of her HERC lost sheep, so if you are;

Seth Breidbart
P.O. Box 51 _ _ [fill in the blank]
NY NY 10185

or

Thomas Twardowski
10_ _ [fill in the blank] Little Road #A
Newton, PA. 18940

you are apparently owed HERC material. Please get in touch with them via;

The Harlan Ellison Record Collection
P.O. Box 55548
Sherman Oaks, CA. 91413

and let them know your new address. Give Susan your old HERC number if you know it. It helps. Or, just call Harlan direct - day or night. He won't mind. You guys are probably fleeing the law or girlfriends so what's a little more adventure, eh?

John Monzo called me the other night to tell me that on top of Harlan's other gigs this year he has just committed to the con that used to be called Mad Media but whatever you say Barney don't call it that because there was a sort of falling out or disagreement or copyright infringement but I can't talk about that right now so just dont call it M*d Me*ia even though I'm working with some of the same folks and the word Media is part of the NEW con name and it's in the same part of Wisconsin [cheeseheads call it Madison which is an old indian name for "We wish we were Milwaukee, eh?"] but it's in a much better venue. Better venue is Wisconsinese for the bar stays open until 8:30PM and the confood doesn't walk down the table and beat the shit out of the coffee because the coffee is too weak to defend itself. There will be other guests such as Peter David [ubiquitous, ain't he?] and, well, I'm supposed to keep my mouth shut about others. I'll send Rick the flyer when John and the constaff are further along.
Now you know.

Anybody got a copy of the Grollier Encyclopedia of SF they could lend me for a week. I'll make it worth your while...
Regards,

Barney Dannelke

[anybody know if Jim Harmon is still around? Writer and SF fan - you'd know him if you knew him...]

Ah, but Alex Jay, tocayo of tocayos, after last Christmas shopping binge, a close to $5,000 dental surgery which I am still slowly paying off, (to which I now add a crown which will replace a molar whose inner wall I manage to break in two after eating a Starbuck's scone…and don't you dare laugh at me; I already heard from Paul about how funny this all sounds, the Barry Ween to my Jeremy Ramirez) and after spending close to $200 on graphic novels last month, my credit card is asking for a vacation.

I mean, my credit is good and all. But, considering the state of our current economy, the less I charge on the sucker and the sooner I pay it off, the happier I will be. But considering that besides the long-delayed Jinx, Warren's Lazarus Churchyard and Book 5 of Lone Wolf and Cub may also be coming out next Wednesday, I may have no choice but to use it. Oh, yes, and I did promise my sister I would get her the two Barry Ween tpbs. Unfortunately, there are no decent comic book stores in Stillwater, Oklahoma so I have turned into her ultimate comic book dealer.

Credit card, hell.
If you just avoid those pesky things like rent and utilities, a whole world of rampant consumerism opens wide before you ...

(Though I'm more interested in picking up the TPB of Bendis' TORSO than JINX, when it ever comes out--and have been waiting over a YEAR for Steranko's reissue of RED TIDE ...)

And some news: We have another convert.
My ladylove, who has previously been only tangentially interested in comics (though she devours every ish of Frank Cho's LIBERTY MEADOWS as soon as I get it), and I were speaking of this and that as we lay in bed this afternoon.

I mentioned Alan Moore's FROM HELL, saying something like, "it's really a great piece of work--and very faithful to the actual history; it matches well with the Rumbelow Ripper book I have, and with Robert Bloch's NIGHT OF THE RIPPER, which I have, and ..."

She interrupted.

"Yeah, well, I haven't read that much on the Ripper, but Bloch's "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" really creeped me out in a good way--and of course, "A Toy for Juliette" and the Prowler story in DANGEROUS VISIONS (see why I love this woman?) ..."

Anyway, the conversation went elsewhere from there.

When I returned home this morning (I work the nightshift), she'd gone back to her dorm--but my copy of FROM HELL was on the bed, open to a spot about a third of the way in ...

And hey; Alejandro--e-mail me, if you've a spare moment; I've a question or two on journalistic stuff for you.
If you don't have the time, though, don't sweat it.
(Though, if you do, you probably want to CC: it to affannat@sas.upenn.edu as that's where I'll be for a few days)

Finder:

Next Wednesday. Stand in line, for it will be a hot week comics wise. Not only is Unca Harlan's story scheduled for publication; Jinx: The Definitve Collection is coming out as well as Marvel Boy's final ish.

There goes my credit card.

Wednesday? Yesterday Wednesday? Or next Wednesday? Looks like I swing past the comic shop on the way home.

For you completists/comic book collectors--

From:http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0101/25/index.htm

FIRST LOOK: BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHTS #13

Batman: Gotham Knights #13 will arrive in stores on Wednesday from DC Comics. The issue is written by Greg Rucka and Harlan Ellison, with art by Rick Burchett, Gene Ha and Rodney Ramos and a painted cover by Durwin Talon.

Here's how DC describes the issue, which his the conclusion to the "Officer Down!" event"

"James Gordon faces his final destiny and Batman must accept the possibility of the loss of a valued comrade, and a life which never will be quite the same. Plus, a black-and-white backup feature written by Harlan Ellison and illustrated by Gene Ha."

Batman: Gotham Knights #13 will be 40 pages and will cost $2.50.

Check out the want ads, Ltd Ed Ellison for sale

As posted below, I called United's customer service to get a copy of Hemisphere in-flight magazine with HE's story in it. I received a free pristine copy of the magazine in the mail in 5 days. Worth a toll-free call. It's a breathtaking story. Good luck.

Chris L: Yet another Philadelphian!

Try the Barnes & Noble on Chemical Rd. out near Plymouth Meeting (between Ridge and Germantown Rds). It's the only damned newsstand in the area where I've recently found more than one bedraggled copy of HITCHCOCK'S among the digest-sized fiction magazines (one hopes Tower Books on South St still carries them, but one would've hoped the other Goliath Bookpulpers had them on hand). I was able to pick up a copy of F&SF with "...Alphabet" (and WEIRD TALES and ELLERY QUEEN'S) there.

Failing that, Fsfmag.com can probably fix you up.

Rumors exist that HE's story in HEMISPHERES is bound for YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR.

If that's not w

If some of you still have need of a copy of Hemispheres, I have some copies given me by a relative that has flown on United this month. It is a pretty heavy magazine, I checked out the postage to send it and it will cost me $3.50 to mail. I would also trade for a vcr tape of any HE appearance from recent times on back to Tom Snyder era shows. Just let me know if interested. Roger

Hey, SUE, I noticed that in 1999, when Bradbury suffered a stroke, it was reported all over the media -- internet, newspapers, TV, magazines -- because he is one of those "big name" writers that are instantly recognizable by most folks. Haven't seen any such reports lately, so CHARLIE may be right: this could be a case of old news being recycled, or just an update on Bradbury's recovery from his '99 stroke (besides, I was talking with someone else, on Thursday, who knows Bradbury reaaalllly well, and he didn't mention anything...which, considering their long-standing friendship would've been very unusual). Just a thought, since, on the internet, rumors are like wildfires. By the way: "Incognita, Inc." has been chosen for THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY & HORROR by E. Datlow -- for the 2002 edition, I believe -- it's a real corker of a story and worth the time and money to order one -- see the address in a posting below...The Shadow.

Well, I didn't "see it" either. I heard it from friends of mine who know him. I don't know that it was related to last years clot. I don't know that it wasn't either. I was told it was a stroke, and has affected his left side with immobility (visibly apparent to visitors), and that it is too early to tell how much Mr. Bradbury will recover. I was also asked to post the message - which I did.

Sue, I haven't seen anything on Ray's problem. Where did you see this? Is it related to last year's clot?

For those who haven't heard.. Ray Bradbury suffered a stroke a few days ago. I haven't heard any of the "details", and assume the entertainment news will do that for me... ;-)

Those wishing to send Cards, Letters, and best wishes may send them to:

Ray Bradbury
10265 Chariot Dr.
Los Angeles, CA
90064

Doc and Wylie both send warm hugs and Hiya's to the Webderheads. Both hope to be back on-line in a more permanent fashion soon.

Try High, Fly Straight, Drive Safe

I got my copy of Hemispheres! Only two days! Of course, I live in Chicago, where United is headquartered, so I guess I'm lucky there. Interestingly, the story is set in Old Town in Chicago.

Hello, and, yes, I know I sent myself into exile, but just a brief respite to see if anyone needs a copy of the February 2001 issue of F&SF, with the Ellison novelet "From A to Z, In the Sarsaparilla Alphabet" enclosed. I have one extra copy left, a perk of having a brother who owns a cigar/magazine store. Anyone looking for one, please contact me at the email address above. I'm asking cover price ($3.50US, $4.99CDN) plus $1.50
postage. Bye all, I'm off to catch the 8:30 rickshaw back to Elba.
--Mike

BRIEF NOTE: Hemispheres Magazine, where Harlan's story is appearing this month, sent me a press release. You can find it on the news page. 'nuff said, the dog is barking and wants to be let in RIGHT NOW...

Hey everyone. Been a while. I finally got my F&SF a couple of days ago in the mail. I thank goodness I remembered to renew my subscription after letting it lapse from September to December. Speaking of F&SF: I went up into the redwooded wilds of Northern California this weekend and stopped at the used book shop where I had previously found a first edition of Paingod. This time there were no first editions, (though I found I Have No Mouth, which I was missing) but I did find a excellently preserved copy of the July '77 F&SF, the special Ellison issue. The cover's got an illustration of Ellison at his typewriter surrounded by a bunch of pointy-eared gremlins, some of whom look suspiciously familiar.

Anyway, I hope all the regulars out there are doing well. Newcomers welcome. I'm still writing, though slowly since I'm trying to graduate some time soon. Before next december.

---Peter
furor scribendi

I don't know if Mr. Ellison is going to read this or not; I know that he occasionally sees what appears on this website. The reason I'm posting this is that I don't consider it important enough to send via his agent, nor do I want to it come in a flood of fan mail asking stupid questions.

A bit of an introduction: I am a professional writer, at the very beginning of my career. My big break came with Simon & Schuster, when they offered me a Diablo e-book (I made the best of it, and a lot of Diablo fans were offended when they got a serious fantasy rather than a rediculous plot involving one superhero against an army). I am now working on several short stories, a Beowulf anthology, a full-length novel (while my agent tries to sell my other completed novel to a print publisher), and I have a regular column (inspired heavily by Mr. Ellison's "An Edge in my Voice") named Garwulf's Corner on Diabloii.net, which at last report was actually waking people up from their routine-induced comas and bringing them to life.

All of this is context for the following: Thank you Mr. Ellison. You have had an incredible impact on my writing, and are one of the people who help keep me at it. Now that I have started my professional career, my greatest hope is that I will be able to make a difference, and not fall in with those mindless fantasy and sci-fi series that have proliferated the marketplace, and are slowly strangling the speculative fiction genre.

Best regards,

Robert B. Marks

From Yahoo News:

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Dimension Films has optioned the script to the 1964 ``Outer Limits'' episode ``Demon With a Glass Hand'' from author Harlan Ellison, who will adapt the screenplay. David Twohy (``Pitch Black'') is set to direct.
``Demon'' is a sci-fi thriller about a man from the future transported by unknown means to our time, his memory wiped clean of who he is, where he came from and what powerful secret he possesses.
The man is being stalked mercilessly by members of an alien race from that same future time. The man appears unimportant, but in truth there can be no world without him.
Twohy, who penned ``Impostor,'' ``G.I. Jane'' and ``The Fugitive'' is directing ``Below'' for Dimension from a script he wrote with Darren Aronofsky (``Requiem for a Dream'') and Lucas Sussman. He plans to make ``Demon'' his next film.
Ellison is one of the top writers of fantasy and speculative fiction, having won numerous Hugo and Nebula awards.

As a follow up to the UAL, I paid the $7.50 to Hemispheres and rec'd a pristine copy of the magazine in about a 3 day turnaround. The mag. is recommended, as there is also an article by R. Bradbury and another on SF in general.

Damn...let's hear it for UAL's customer servive. Very nice on the phone, and I should get my copy in 7-10 business days. Coudln't have asked for better treatment. I got the feeling, thought, that this is not an odd request for them.

Hi,

I just read all of the comments concerning everyone's recent journeys to find the latest HE works and thought I'd share what I've found.

First, I went looking for the February 2001 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction and (suprisingly!) they had it in stock at the first Borders store that I went to. It was the next to last copy though, so I'm guessing that stores didn't order many...call around because they definitely are available.

Ok, so that wasn't of much use to anyone, but this next bit might be. I called United Airlines yesterday (800.241.6522) and asked if they had any copies of the January 2001 Hemispheres that they could send me. The very friendly lady looked around the office, found a copy, checked to make sure that the HE story that I was looking for was indeed included, took my name and address and said it would be shipped to me the next day free of charge. That was just yesterday, but hopefully it will arrive soon. Since I don't always trust people to do what they say, today I drove out to the airport and asked the (also very nice) lady at the United Airlines desk if they had any copies available and she said that as soon as the next plane landed, she would go on and snag a copy for me...which she did! It only cost me $2 for about an hour's worth of parking (and waiting) time, so that route is definitely worth checking into if you live anywhere near an airport. My third idea was to check Hemisphere's website (www.hemispheresmagazine.com)...they didn't have the HE story posted, but I sent an email to them and got the following response:

From: karen.lawson@hemispheresmagazine.com
Copies of Hemispheres may be purchased for $7.50 by mailing in a check to the address below.

Karen Lawson
Administrative Assistant
Hemispheres Magazine
1301 Carolina St.
Greensboro, NC 27401

Of course, this is a little more expensive than $0 for the one that I'm supposed to be getting from the 800 number, and also more than $2 for parking at the airport, but it IS another option.

Just thought I'd share...hope everyone has luck in finding themselves a copy of either or both of these stories. Incognita, Inc. is outstanding.

Later,
Brandon

Chris L.

After a week of checking the nearby Border's everyday and just about giving up hope...
I checked again yesterday and there it was, the Unca Harlan issue of F&SF. Good luck with your
hunt.

Hmm, sometimes I almost believe in the supernatural.

I am not a regular reader of The Magazine of F&SF but I check it out occasionally. I stopped in at the nearby Border's two days ago but couldn't find it. I checked out the closest Barnes and Noble. No dice.

For some reason, I decided I absolutely had to have it. So I travelled a little further to another Barnes and Noble. Nothing doing. I just get more steamed. So I drive another 20 minutes to another Border's - the one with the biggest magazine section of all of them.

Still nothing. I wonder where I can find this magazine that I now absolutely, positively must have. I then remember how good the board at harlanellison.com is and I figure someone there will be able to tell me if perhaps the magazine has gone strictly direct or not.

Then I find out Harlan Ellison has a story in this issue.

I honestly didn't know until just now but for two days, I have been trying my damndest to find this magazine.

Can this be coincidence? Is Unca Harlan flouridating my water?

I just got my Rabbit Hole, and noticed that Harlan has a short story in the January issue of Hemispheres magazine (in-flight magazine for United Airlines). I called United's customer relations number, and the friendly employee said that they would gladly mail me one for free. Give it a shot.

Wow. I ordered a book from the HERC, and HE autographed it for me. That was pretty cool. I didn't know he autographed the books that were for sale. It's even legible! So far it has been the highlight of the month for me. (Yes, that's quite a highlight indeed!)

Just thought I'd share my joy.

Hi James!

My 2 years of Spanish back in jr. high clearly weren't up to the translation then! :-) Although, given that the latin name for the maple family is acer, seems like it should have occured to me! Where I grew up, I knew a lot of Trujillos and Gonzales', etc. As a matter of fact, my last name is Budge, which is a pretty small group - all of whom come from the same small place in Scotland and so are related. I knew a LOT of Trujillos, none of whom were related. I remember finding the concept fascinating as a child! Probably because, while I know the derivations (or can make an educated guess) of common English names, I don't know enough Spanish to get much past the de la something or others when it comes to derivations.

At any rate, thanks for telling me about your name! I'm looking forward to reading your book when I get my next paycheck.

Maggie Budge

Hi, Maggie:

Actually, Arce is not an uncommon name in Spain, from whence my maternal grandmother came to Puerto Rico around the end of the 19th century. In fact, it's the Spanish word for maple. Nobody thought it an odd or unfamiliar name when I went to Barcelona in December of '97 to pick up the UPC Award, nor the times I've been in Mexico or Colombia.

BRIEF NOTE - Harlan's got an auction on ebay selling a collection of NATIONAL LAMPOON Magazines:
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=ViewItem&item=1402449855

I just finished reading Harlan's story in F&SF, I found it at Barnes and Nobles this morning, their last copy. I think it is going to take a few reads to grasp, as with much of Harlan's work for me. It is included in the 25th anniversary volume of Deathbird Stories soon forthcoming, with footnotes and introductory essay.

Maggie:

To answer your question: In the early 1800s, the Spanish Government enacted what they called a "Cedula de Gracia", an immigration act that enabled hundreds of Euopeans (mostly of French and Irish extraction) to move to the island. The reason for this? Fearing that the slave revolution in Haiti would spread throughout the Caribbean and recognizing that the mulatto population in Puerto Rico was much larger than the white population (i.e. Spanish which, when youn really think about it, is not really a pure race at all), the Spanish government thought it would be most prudent to even things out by promoting the migration of Europeans to the island. Pretty much a knee jerk reaction, something along the lines of fearing the black man kinda racist crap that you hear in this country.

Alas, I have yet to read Octavia's work. Have meant to all this time but other I have been distracted by other authors, other media. Will add her to my must read list now.

Hey Alejandro -

I just finished reading your interview with James Stevens-Arce. Nice work! The book sounds very interesting - if for no other reason than trying to figure out how the Catholics and the Protestants could be reunited under the leadership of a woman...For what it's worth, I would never have seen the name Arce as Hispanic. I grew up in a neighborhood with a fair amount of Hispanics, am related to some Hispanics by marriage and I would never have pegged that name as Hispanic. French maybe... Of course, the vast majority of the Hispanics of my acquitance are of Central and South American extraction, not Carribbean, is that the difference?

At any rate, it was quite interesting. Although, I was wondering if you were familiar with Octavia Butler. I do not know her ethnic origins, but her stories often feature Hispanics and she writes some really remarkable and wonderful things. I have wondered if she was Hispanic because she uses Hispanic characters quite a bit and her works often have a touch of the magic realism style that is far more common in Latin American literature than North American literature.

I don't know if there's anyone out there these days who can relate to or recall the old 50's Superman series w/George Reeves, but for those who can, we all remember a lot of it being incredibly bad and aimed at 5-year-olds. Well, recently I caught first-season episodes and some of them are gems: they are B&W, violent, noirish mysteries (with a bit of blood here and there!) with a flavor crossed between the Untouchables, The Twilight Zone and EC Comics (remember Tales from the Crypt?), sometimes bordering on the supernatural. The first season was made at the height of the noir trend in movies; Robert Mitchum was a psychotic basket case and director Billy Wilder was master of the genre. So, the hard-edged Superman episodes were played a bit more adult, focused mainly on Kent (beautifully played by Reeves, with intelligence and all kinds of convincing nuances in his behavior - he was a first-rate actor, who hadn't appeared in Gone With The Wind for nothing), and frankly minimizing the appearances of Superman himself. As I watched him, he actually began to remind me of Bill Shatner as Kirk in terms of his physical movements - the latter being kind of a super hero himself. In fact, the two-part pilot (The Mole People) is a morality play about bigotry and mob mentality, the first time comic book material was ever treated that way and not unlike the approach a typical Star Trek episode would take in story-telling later. There aren't a GREAT number of good episodes, but, man, I recommend checking out a few for history's sake (particularly, episodes The Evil Three - wherein the skeletal remains of a murder victim are found in the basement of an abandoned hotel in the bayous, The Monkey Mystery and Mystery of the Broken Statues, a well-written entry which may be based on Doyle's 'The Six Napoleans'; that's right, I taped 'em). Lois, played by Phyllis Coates, is a liberated competitive woman (in a time when women were supposed to keep their places), ready to belt any guy who'd get out of line with her, and the ulcer-ridden Perry White is incomparable. If you can handle a blatently low-budget universe (and those of us who watched the original Star Trek are surely used to that) take a look at the acting, writing, and style of a show (and with a helluva music score) that virtually foreshadows the noir universe of today's Batman in film and TV. It was a great dark live-action cartoon in shades of grays for all ages (with occasional images a bit disturbing for very young viewers: in two episodes, a woman lies comatose with a bloodied face). I never knew the show was ever quite that good or interesting, even briefly. I think those few episodes blow the hell out of the modern treatment of Superman. This is coming from an aspiring artist/filmmaker, so forgive the passion.

It's plug time folks!

SCIFINOW.COM IS NOW UPDATED.

For those of you in the know, with this edition of SciFiNow.Com, Paul hangs his editor's hat for awhile as he rides into the sunset in search of new challenges and adventures. So, go, visit the site, click on the web exclusive link and see what Paul and his desperadoes have been up to lately. Oh, yes, there is an interview with Puerto Rican science fiction writer James Stevens-Arce there by some guy by the name of Alejandro Riera. He sure would welcome comments.

Hey, put that baseball bat down!

Alejandro: Thank you for the clarification of the Harlan story in Gotham Knights 13 as a stand alone story. The latest Rabbit Hole said it should be on the stands Jan. 31

To clarify previous post: It's apparently not out *on the newsstands* yet, although subscribers have theirs....

Ray:

I don't think the Feb. F&SF is out yet. The F&SF website is still displaying the Jan. issue.

I agree with Peg. Mike's a good chap-had a personal dealing with him a few months back (IHNMAIMS). Everyone's allowed a mild steam off, or a big one for that matter, then and again. Stick around, Mike. On another note, I contacted Hemisphere's magazine about HE's new story, Incognita, Inc., and they said send $7.50 for a copy of the magazine to: Karen Lawson, Administrative Asst., Hemispheres Magazine, 1301 Carolina St., Greensboro, NC 27401.

Well, Mike, I think your decision to leave is probably shortsighted. There's a lot more that gets discussed on this board besides TV. Your loss...

The criminal returns to the scene.
First, an apology to all for the small (or large, depending on the reader's perspective) impertinence on my part. On the whole, I don't view much television at all, in fact, less than two hours a week, during a non-busy seven days, but find on the rare occasion that I do turn on the idiot box (and I mean that with all sincerity) I find the "Mr. (or Mrs.) Fix-it" and cooking shows the most moronic of the fare being offered. Not a personal slight: the problem with throwing napalm is everything gets burned. Quite correct of you, Peg, to make the point that I'm as guity of splattering bullshit as anyone, and another small apology for wasting anyone's time, if I have.
Thanks for the education, and experience. I now will take my leave, but don't expect me back. (I can just hear the good riddance to bad rubbish comments through the phone line)
--Mike

Roger:

You don't need to buy the other six Batman titles to enjoy Harlan's story. Gotham Knights usually features two stories (usually stand-alone stories) about the Dark Knight. The main story for Gotham Knights 13 will be linked to the "Jim Gordon is shot" crossover of that month. Unca Harlan's will be the stand-alone. And that is the only reason why I am buying that book (I only read Batman for the Earthshock -or whatever the hell that earthquake crossover was called- and No Man's Land storylines out of curiosity. They stopped being dark, psychotic and noirish a long time ago; and the ending of the No Man's Land storyline seemed to perpetuate the Batman trademark unnecesarily. Want noir in your comics? I recommend Greg Rucka's Whiteout and Whiteout: Melt, Frank Miller's Sin City and Brian Azzarello's 100 Bullets graphic novels which satiate my need for dark, psychotic noir in ways unimagined.)

I have a question about Batman:Gotham Knights 13 which should feature a story by Harlan. I was in the comic book store I frequent today and it was mentioned in an ad as the last part of a seven-part epic which involves six other comics with the other parts. Is Harlan's part going to make sense standing alone, or am I going to have to purchase the issues that precede it for it to make sense? Thanks,Roger

Anyone able to purchase a copy of the Feb. F&SF with Unca Harlan. Just got back from a search of every
bookstore in the "Loop" area, Borders, Crown, Dalton, etc. Nada.

Peg - seems to me I owe you one for the tape of Harlan's last "Politically Incorrect" appearance, so the least I could do is return the favor. Shoot me an e-mail and let me know where I can send said tape to.

Once again I have offended my Canadian brothers. Oh well. If it'll make it up to you your welcome to come down here and burn down the White House again for all I care. Just a thought.

oh yeah (I always, always hit that Send button just a _little_ too fast) hey PETER and ALEX....writing anything lately Peter?

Alas, we do not get the Food Channel, else I would definitely tune in....hey SUE L hey DOC hey RICK. Well I'm at work so that's about all I should write for now....

Mike,
Talking about personal appearances on cooking shows is no worse in my mind than comparing snowfall or politics or even other TV fare.... Why do you find this so banal as to drive you off?
(personally, I desparately miss the Food Network, no real substitute on my cable subscription here. Don't suppose anyone would mail me a videotape of the great Dannelke revelations? I even have a US address you could use.... In their defense, though, the UK has the US beat hands down on home decorating shows!)
Peg

Cooking show announcements? Oh for the love of... I guess, once again, I've found another hive of idiots. Doesn't anybody want to talk about anything?
I'm gone, Mike.

Barney - And they say there's no quality programming on television these days! Very nice. I've already attached a note to my television to remind me (as riddled with holes as my memory becomes, the post-it note has become my new best friend.) But I will need to turn the set away from the secret corner of my secret sanctum - otherwise you'll know what the Information Bureau has been gathering... And as hard as I find this to believe, could I have had my F&SF before you had one? What wonders the millennium may bring. You should have backed Barnes & Noble - the one outside Harrisburg up 15 had them stocked and moving yesterday (oh yes; I pass through your state with impunity. I honked as I crossed your exact latitude, though... scared that poor old lady and her little dog, but I did lay on the horn...)

Xan - ah, the meister chow and the cone-of-I'd-be-silent-if-I-wasn't-completely-pissed-on-the-chow. Memory gaps? Would the photos help? The audio? Three minutes of jittery hand-held video? Finder, Keeper, sometimes there is no difference...

And to harken back to the new(ish) "From A to Z..." for a moment, am I the only one who thinks that it will fit in with the rest of the tales in "Deathbird Stories" the way, say, a clown fits in at an archbishop's funeral? Don't get me wrong - it's a pleasant frolic and I enjoyed it - but it seems so out of place when considered among the others.

Barney: Very cool! I look forward to seeing the (in)famous Casa Dannelke. I'm decompressing from altogether too much Iron Chef as we speak - I believe I caught 10 hours of the 24 hour marathon. (Though I missed the live octopus battle at the end of the marathon) And hey, if you're willing, just swing those 3 minutes in my direction - I vaguely remember trading my original issue back in the late eighties for a case of meister-brau and a one-time-use-only cone-of-silence generator. (Please don't ask me what I did with them, the details are fuzzy, and there still is that outstanding warrant.)

All: Happy New Millennium! I hope the coming year finds you all well and happy.

Hello, boys and girls. I hope everyone is having a much better New Year than I. (Don't even THINK to ask. I'll rip you a new one and not a thought to it.)

Anyway, word comes to me that you can bid on a seat on "Politically Incorrect". That's right: Pay to exercise your First Amendment Rights with the world's biggest dink: Bill Mahr.

Now. Since 'unca' Harlan ain't been on the airwaves of late, specifically P.I., perhaps someone Out There would care to buy him a seat on P.I. to rant on having to pay to exercise his Free Speech.

My two cents.

Until next time. . .

Jim Hess

Interesting - Three separate very specific questions about "A Boy and His Dog"! Two from Duluth, MN! The other doesn't list their location. Seems like some students have a paper to write about the movie. Maybe they would do better to actually think their own thoughts!

Oh MAAAAN. We don't GET the food channel on my cable outlet....

*** Hey Gang *** 1st off - Happy New Year!! I've had a good one so far. Nothing quite like looking right into the eyes of someone you love and saying "Here's to the next thousand years!" and watching them shudder at the prospect. :-]

I caught "Memos From Purgatory" on the Hitchcock marathon [TV Land] and it was pretty much as I remembered it. Damn but Koenig looks YOUNG in that episode. I mean 'snuck out of the orphanage' type young. Guess time kicks us all in the ass. Oh, well. Now if somebody will just rerun Burkes Law, Route 66, and Whirlybirds [hah!] I've got all the bases covered. Except for "City" on DVD, which I just can't see paying for, but we'll see.

Ran out to Borders for the F&SF [i used to subscribe but they kept mangling my copies before they got to my door] and was cruelly mocked by the January ["display until 12/28/00"] issue. Just 'cause it's New Years Eve of the millennium they think they can slack off. What about MY NEEDS?! Soon - very soon.

***CASA DANNELKE PRESS RELEASE!! *** You say your tired of waiting for politically incorrect to have Harlan back and the Sci-Fi channel won't run that SCIFI Buzz marathon you keep requesting? You need some Ellison related vidiot box fix? Well I can't help you - BUT! I [along with the lovely Lenora Dannelke] am going to be on Food Fantasy on the Food Network January 9th at 10:30PM. Actually, it's mostly Lenora but I believe I am in a couple of shots. Essentially, what happened was Lenora pitched an idea for a multiple-quisine ALL Hot and Spicy dinner either to be consumed in multiple locations, or catered and brought to us. They opted for the latter and so the filming was done in our house. So for those of you whose initials are not Sue Luesse who always wondered what Casa Dannelke might look like or what I might do in my spare time when I am not cross indexing Ellison appearances in the Comics Journal or letters in Science Fiction Review, this here is just the ticket! So go out and buy a brand new blank tape and dust off that VCR because for 12 minutes [11 hours of filming in my home comes to 12 minutes. - Lenora says somebody else can have the other 3 minutes of fame. ;-] ) the Dannnelkes will be PROVIDING CABLE CONTENT! The other cool thing is that Lenora got 2 articles out of it. She's a free lance writer. So if this doesn't satisfy your Dannelke Food Cravings, you can read even more Dannelke content in the next issue of Chile Pepper magazine, out on the stands REAL SOON.
And if this is all too off-topic here is the Ellison tie-in. Just last year at a breakfast with Harlan he offered to jam a fork in my forehead for asking him a question he thought was impertinent. Imagine. Me? Impertinent? Whatever. So there. And remember to straighten your living rooms. Because once you get in the TV, you can see out. No, really.

Well, BM is short for bowel movement which is in very common usage - the initials at least - among mothers in Utah, which is where my sister lives. The whole family was just astonished that she'd never even considered that some kid somewhere down the line is going to find out about the initials and give my nephew a bad time about it. Somehow, I keep hearing the piping sounds of children's voices yelling "poopy head" or some such...

Want me to send you a picture of some of our snow??? Course, nobody here knows how to actually drive in the stuff, but we do have adequate and well trained plows, drivers and sanding trucks...

Maggie - we've actually had several inches of snow in the last few days! We're enjoying it although the rest of the country is not reacting as well *laf* . They're just not prepped to deal with it.

Also, I don't get the big deal about connecting B.M.?? [must admit my brain seems to be on hold these days] Does his last name start with W?

Shari:
I can't offhand recall, and I'm trying, why the mime makeup was
utitlized for those sequences. I have a DVD with director's commentary, and will check. Just off the top of my head, I would venture a guess that the clown-face represents the sterility of the culture, as much from a lack of exposure to differences found in new ideas, and people, as exposure to the sun. (If any find this oversimplistic, a shrug and a plea of mea culpa) To me, the consummate irony is that the repudiation of difference, and fear of the unknown is a contributing factor to conflict between people, in more extreme cases between societies (wars, in this case).
In a further note, a sad coincidence to know the loss of one of my favourite actors, in Jason Robards, Jr. I've enjoyed his work in a lot of films and plays beyond ABAHD, such as Long Day's Journey into Night, The Iceman Cometh, Julia, and All the President's Men. He seemed to be a person who became those parts he played, not just put on the role like a suit of clothes.

I recently just watched "A Boy and his Dog" and found it intriguing. I am just curious to know what people thought about the underground people and why they became infertile. I would assume that the people above would become that first. I would also like to know if anyone thought about why they painted their faces? Is it suppose to indicate their fakeness?

GANG, as promised last month, Harlan's "From A to Z, In the Sarsaparilla Alphabet", a novelet, is featured in the Feb. F&SF. The cover picture accompanying the novelet is by James Gurney. Very cool. The footnotes and introductory essay didn't make press time, but are promised in the 25th Deathbird Stories reissue, along with the story. My issue just arrived today.

Well, it's still snowing here! I'll send you a picture Peg if you're really missing the white stuff, we've got plenty!

I used to work for a company called TSE, Inc. Way, way back in the mists of time, they used to be known as North Suburban Day Recreation. As things shifted towards work programs and away from glorified day care, they changed their name to TSE, Inc. I worked there for 6 years. I was never able to find a single soul who either knew, or would admit to knowing, what the TSE stood for. I agree with you, it sucks. Initials should stand for something! I've a nephew whose name is Benjamin M. Seems his father's family has a tradition of no middle names, just an initial. When I pointed out the obvious - you just know there's a 5th grade boy in his future who will connect B.M. - and suggested that as long as it didn't stand for anything, they should pick another one, she told me I didn't know what I was talking about.

Like you said Joseph, initials should stand for something!

Peg - don't worry, this is a completely different discussion and only bears tengentially on bp.

I bleeping hate companies that don't have real names! I want a company name that means something, as opposed to one that "sounds good."

Amoco, Arco, Burma Castrol... Let's face it, at the rate they were acquiring companies we weren't going to be able to keep adding names onto the end. In any case, it's no longer British Petroleum. Technically, bp doesn't stand for anything now, and it's just lower case with the new sunflower-like logo. But of course there are lots of fun versions, unfortunately they're not nearly as amusing unless you've been through the companies "brand launch". [Before that I thought it stood Borg Petroleum - you will be assimilated, resistance is futile. *laf*]
As to where I'm from originally - it depends on how far back you'd like to go. I'll send you a note (no need to make everyone suffer through the electronic version of vacation slide shows).
Peg

Ah, British Petroleum. The folks who decided that Amoco was not a brand name they needed to keep in the states. :)

So where are you from originally, Peg?

Joseph - happy to oblige. I transferred with my company (bp). Aberdeen is the center for North Sea oil industry and Anchorage, AK is the center for North Slope oil industry. Since bp has large interests in both it's common for transfers between them, as well as Houston and London. (Sometimes it's easier than others; high oil prices don't hurt.)
I'm not an "Alaskan" really, I only moved there for the job (there are probably even or greater numbers of imports than home-growns). For me, home is wherever I happen to be living, so I now consider myself to be an Aberdonian. And, I'm happy to host a webdergathering anytime the board folks would like! Maybe you could make up for missing it last time.
Peg

Peg - If it's not too personal, I'm just curious how an Alaskan ended up in Scotland? It just seems like a bit of a shift. Of course, now I'm jealous, because when my wife and I went overseas for the first time, in October, we couldn't spare the time for Scotland. On the other hand, we had a lovely trip through Britain and Ireland.

Snow...? Well, they have something here vaguely resembling what I remember as snow from Alaska. But it melts too fast. (It has, however, hailed heavily 3 times today, so at least it *looks* like it snowed). I definitely miss the wintry feel and look of snow from the far north, or the fairytale hoarfrost that coated every bare tree branch when the temperature was bitter and fog passed through.
I do not, however, miss trying to shovel 2 feet of thick, nasty, mashed potato-like snow off my steep, north-facing driveway for 2 hours straight, thank you very much. And I do not miss it being winter for 5 - 6 frigging months! Ah, to have a fall that lasts over 3 weeks, and spring actually arrives in, well, spring!
A Merry Christmas (Ellison be darned) and Happy Highland Hogmanay (that's new year's eve here) to you all.
Peg

Thought I'd delurk to wish the wonderful Webderhead folks a Happy Holiday season, and a new year full of growth, wonder, and plain old fun. Love and Peace

Maggie: We do get some lake-effect snow, but its no real problem. I tend to notice that Minnesota gets it a lot harder.
I'm just a fine Canadian: complaining as always. It's as much a tradition as hockey, and beaver tails.
Barney: All right, you little smartass, ya wanna play? First, you got the syntax all wrong. Your voice has to be more nasal!
For example, Geeze, I was, like, at the Tim Horton's, eh? This girl comes in, and she's only got two teeth in her yap, eh, hanging there in the front like two icicles off the garage. I made me want to go home to my wife and three kids, and I've never even been married yet!
A bit of bad news in closing Barney. You've dicovered a federally guarded secret, regarding our Canadian Writers Market.
I'm sorry, but it forces you to have to hold the next Canadian Alliance political convention at your house. Think of it this way: It like having fifty thousand Jehovah's Witnesses over for a week-long sleepover.
In closing, please remember the season, and see to it that HE's essay on Christmas is read in your homes, it may help to chase the unwanted relatives away a little sooner!
Happy Consumer Day, all! --Mike

I feel like a stand-up comic but speaking of Canadians... Last night I was looking to see if Writers Market 2001 was out yet and I ran a cross "Canadian Writers Market". Now I know perfectly well what that would be for but my brain refused to play fair. All I could think of was lines like, well, "She walked into my office like a lake effect storm front and slapped me. That slap was harder than a three day old donut. She was pissed at me OK? Her nose was turned up at me higher than Joni Mitchells', eh? Then I started to think about a play by Tennesee Williams if he had come from the land of the Micmacs and everybody was drunk but they were all trapped in a ice shanty instead of a plantation. Pretty depressing, eh? My work here is done. Anybody else want to play?

Barney [A former Wisconsonite and total Stan Rogers fan - Its almost like being Canadian except I don't like back bacon on pizza.]

Well, I always figured that the parts of Canada that were south of us would get more snow than we do here simply because of their proximity to the Great Lakes, but maybe not. Of course, I wouldn't have expected to see snow there in July. Although, for the record, we did have snow for the 4th of July one year - that wasn't in MN though. That was in the Great State of Utah! Now, it was a really slushy snow and it went away pretty quickly, but still. REALLY but the kibosh on the old Independence Day picnic, I can tell you!

And, happy holidays - Solstice, Christmas, Ramadan, Hanukah, Kwanzaa or whatever you celebrate!

Maggie

All right, I'll ask: Is Paul T. Riddell pulling a Where's-Waldo bit? I just went to his site, again, and. . .

Nothing.

Zip.

Did I miss something, again?

Until next time. . .

Rick:
Much appreciation for your note: I was there, and I was about to post a warning. Echoes of Billings, Mont. Hmmmmm...
About the snow issue. I love it! Maggie, even though I live geographically more south than you, somehow we in Canada get this tag of living in igloos! Last year, in the middle of July, I was set upon by two native Tennesseans who asked me how much further they had to go north in order to ski. I was standing on a street corner, in Oshawa, in 30 degree (90 fahrenheit) weather!
And you wonder how AlGore could lose.
Later, Mike

My mistake. HANNUKAH LIGHTS will play tonight at 9pm ET on WHYY for those in the Philadelphia area or listening via the Web.

Shatner dogmatists?!?

WARNING: Going to the URL listed for the Ellison award discussion will expose you to a message board populated by about 66% rhetoric-spouting morons. The sort that when you say something like "2+2=4" will reply "Yes, but I don't want to live in a world where 2+2 is 4 but welfare mothers abuse the sytem by collecting checks for 56,712 children and you have to wait 2 months and give a kidney to get a BB gun while criminals can buy assault rifles at the Stop 'n Gulp."

You've been warned.

Hello again, Webderfolks!

WARNING!! "The link" leads to a board for Shatner fans. Just an FYI.

As for the question posed, that list can be found right here, at http://harlanellison.com/awards.htm, which I found about as quickly as the message board. Make of that what you will.

Mitch

I have a question to ask the list. I've been a big fan of Ellison's for a while now and when someone takes a stupid jab at him and his writing I tend to confront them at every turn. Right now I'm debating against "people" who think he is a "Meathead" and need to ask a question. Is there a complete listing of awards won by Ellison somewhere out there in the vast universe called the web? And a total count of all his works?

For those interested the URL is: http://network54.com/Hide/Forum/65218

Thanks,

Riker

HANNUKAH LIGHTS featuring Ellison, Susan Stamberg, et alles, will be playing on WHYY FM tomorrow night, I believe at 8pm (ET). Those who can't hear it otherwise can listen webwise at WHYY.ORG. Mazel tov.

One of my sisters lives in the DC area. Between the fact that the hills in VT don't provide anything that she recognizes as suitable for downhill skiing and the way people freak out over snow, she thinks the whole east coast is just one giant collection of "whimps who don't know any better." Ask her about snow in your area and she makes the funniest snorting sound! Unfortunately, she's married to an Air Force guy who is stationed at the White House - he's a mechanic! So she's stuck there for now!

Snow in the DC Metro area? Occasionally. Maybe two storms that clobber the area every winter (though they're talking 1 to 4 inches today; Fairfax County has the plows idling on the shoulders of I-66 in an attempt to scare the storm away - mind you, not one flake has fallen yet...) Fortunately, the rest of the Finder family still habitates in New York (with a few out Buffalo way), so I get my share of the frosty stuff over the holidays. The photographer in me loves it.

Yeah, but I LIKE the snow! :-) I'm not fond of the native MN drivers, but the snow I like a LOT! It's pretty and fluffy and I get to wear my great big boots and my really cool black wool coat with the alien thumbprint buttons and the Anna Karennina hood and my matching wool beret that I bought from a street vendor in Paris. I get to look at the spare elegant beauty of leafless trees, I have no problems spotting the cardinals in the snow either! And best of all, I don't have to dream about a White Christmas - because I am definitely having one! I'll take the snow over the pesky slush any day - I lived in Boulder, slush capital of the western hemisphere - for a couple of years. I thought a couple of times I was gonna lose a couple toes to the stuff!

I do wish that we had some sort of metro/L/light rail here though. Then I wouldn't even have to be bothered by the idiot drivers! So, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. . .

Snow? Is that the stuff that people in cars are slogging through? Gosh, I love the "L" and the buses.

Alright, Maggie, that may have been a bit cruel. I spent two years in Minnesota, and i know what those winters can be like up there (I love MN, for the record).

Best sight of winter so far: here in Chicago, people set out furniture in spaces that they've shoveled out for themselves. It's considered declasse to move the furnitureto park your car in someone elses space (and will probably get your tires deflated). Anyway, instead of the usual lawn chairs, there's a guy down the street from me who laid out on of those three-level cat climby things. My wife and I got a hoot out of that.

Ah, the joys of finals. . . I remember several times being so wrung out after the things were finally over that I locked myself in my room and played solitaire for 3 days straight. I frequently holler while I drive. Which works fine in the winter, but is - uh - a bit more problematical in the summer. . . ;-)

I need to take a hollerday. I need to take a day, lock myself inside a large metal room, and holler till my throat burns, my tongue swells, and my lungs resemble crumpled sandwich bags. I just finished with finals. I used to think it would be neat to have a whole bunch of take-home finals. Only, that was because I never considered my natural tendency for procrastination. That and other stuff makes the idea of a hollerday all the more appealing. Still, I suppose I'll have to settle for a holiday.

---Peter
furor scribendi

Hollerday lull?

Nah.

I've just been busy being in new love--and have been at her apartment for most of the last two weeks (and we got a kitten together, said demonkitty now sitting on my lap as I sit at my ladylove's iMac with its crappy keyboard.

In case you're really bored, though, I have a remarkably self-indulgent inty-view with writer and FOE Peter David published at http://www.scifinow.com/content.asp?piece=320

And the other articles there are, as always under the two-fisted editorship of our pal Paul Riddell, exceeding fine.

Definitely a "hollerday" lull. That and the fact that for the last week and a half either it's snowing during rush hour or the temp is in that so cold that exhaust freezes on the pavement and so the roads are just crappy. Spending WAAAY too much of my life in my car lately. . .

Hey! Does it snow where you are??

Okay, here's the thing - when you jab the "Send Message" button once and you get a Netscape error message that the gateway has timed out, your message may still post. So don't post it again. (Actually, I think it was net payback for the Gorebot thing...)

Peg - I think it's just one of them there holler-day lulls. I know between being a conspicuous capitalist, mixing and overdubbing sound on the short film I've been working on (Dear Santa Claus, an External Microphone would REALLY fit the bill), and a half dozen other little things that simply must be done before I hit the road for New York, I've been an e-shadow.

And hey, the Chief Justice Claus brought us a shiny new president this year. All the way from the Land of Misfit Toys and everything... not that I wanted an Internet-Ready Gorebot for Christmas, either. I never get what I really want...

Peg - I think it's just one of them there holler-day lulls. I know between being a conspicuous capitalist, mixing and overdubbing sound on the short film I've been working on (Dear Santa Claus, an External Microphone would REALLY fit the bill), and a half dozen other little things that simply must be done before I hit the road for New York, I've been an e-shadow.

And hey, the Chief Justice Claus brought us a shiny new president this year. All the way from the Land of Misfit Toys and everything... not that I wanted an Internet-Ready Gorebot for Christmas, either. I never get what I really want...

Golly, didn't mean to put a damper on things....

Finder - completely understandable. And I probably wouldn't agree with some of their tactics, either. For instance, I wouldn't deny Puerto Rico statehood because so few people speak English (esp. given our history there, it's not like we haven't been treating them halfway like a state in the first place). However, a sensible approach might be something akin to what is required of other immigrants - sort of a 5 year probationary citizenship or resident alien status while they undergo similar training in English, history, government, etc.

For that matter, a good percentage of current citizens should probably undergo the same program! In fact, I have a friend back in Alaska who just this year got his citizenship. Some colleagues threw a party, and we started asking him what was on his test, etc. He knew more about our history and presidents and government than most of us could remember!

Cheers, Peg

Jgrubac:
A quick addition.
I checked with the DVD, and director Jones states that the feet are just an establishing shot, merely to set atmosphere.
Hope it helped.
Mike

Peg - I don't have a problem with the concept of a national language at all; my problem was more with the timbre of the English First site. To me, it seemed that rather than a constructive presentation of an arguement (as yours was), their styling was designed to be more divisive, more inflamatory, geared towards an "us or them" attitude. And I knee-jerked and committed the same error of not putting my best argument forward. I could blame proximity to the beltway, Christmas silliness or a dozen things, but it boils down to rushed and shoddy self-expression. Mea culpa.

Jgrubac:
Dogs became telepathic by accident, based on breeding experiments performed by the army to create a better breed of dog sentry. Along with telepathy, intelligence was greatly increased. Sadly, there seems to be so few women up top because of both the harshness of the living (after four nuclear wars), and the fact that the cities below keep the fairer sex so servile (Quilla June, when she gets one of Vic's guns, doesn't mind killing her own father!). Vic kills Quilla because he realises that he needs Blood more than sex.
I don't know what the feet in the beginning meant, but I've got the movie on DVD, and I'll check with the L.Q. Jones commentary,
and see if I can discern the meaning, if there is one.
Later, Mike.

DTS, nice article on the Essen. Ellison, 50 Yr. Caught it in Sunday's St. Pete. Times. Let me know if you need a copy.

Finder,

>>Well, I don't know anything about English First or their particular goals. I do, however, favor having an official language for government - which I believe is English in the USA. If you've ever seen in just how many languages the CA driver's license test is printed, you'll understand my point.
>>Why is it that people view having English as an official language for the USA as racist or discriminatory or repressing cultural heritage? Expecting someone to speak English as a tourist is not really a comparison. A more appropriate comparison would be if you moved to France and intended to become a citizen and *still* expected everyone to speak English. That would be considered foolish, of course they would have to learn French to live in France; or German for Germany, or Italian for Italy. So why not expect people to learn English to live the in the USA.
>>(Aside note - I don't expect to go to foreign countries and have them speak English, though it certainly helps tourism trade if they do. Then again, it was offensive to me to visit Spain in October and on occasion be asked by locals to speak English because they didn't want to deal with our fumbling Spanish. Hey, at least we were trying!).
>>USA citizen's should be required to have basic reading and writing skills in English - regardless of heritage and background. I do not discriminate in the least. I don't care if your ancestors stepped off the Mayflower or if they snuck across a border yesterday. I do not intend to repress anyone's heritage or culture, they should be encouraged to embrace and develop their cultural heritage. But a nation needs to have one official common language.

Peg (*puts soapbox away*)

For those who had trouble seeing the "Jeffty is Five" cover that I was wondering about (per who was the artist of the strangely disturbing cover for the LP), I have put up a copy on my Yahoo! space, located at:

http://www.geocities.com/josephfinn/jefty.gif

Thanks!

A Boy and His Dog is an interesting story. How did it come about that dogs were telepaths and how does Blood know so much history and how did he teach Vik how to talk with him. Also, why are there so few women on top and why would men prefer to rape and kill them rather than have families with them?
I was also wondering what the feet in the beginning of the movie stood for?

Oh Alejandro -

We've got all sorts of good things to eat up here! I'm very fond of the little Vietnamese restaurant a couple of blocks from me. They speak very little English and the menu is always entertaining (just what do you suppose they meant by "verni beef joy" anyway? :-)), but they have great food, and the Vietnamese coffee is to die for! I haven't personally been to Azul. They mustn't be too bad because they've already expanded once, they get great reviews from our restaurant critic and they always seem to be crammed whenever I've been in the neighborhood. We've got some great Indian food, Thai, Middle Eastern (I'm very fond of baba ghanouj!), Greek - even decent sushi! Not to mention all your more typical foods - Italian, Swedish (oh there's this bakery up in Shoreview. . . ever have cake with lingonberries on it???), a couple of good authentic Mexican (I'm from the West!), French, Brit, German, Irish - and the odd Chang O'Hara's - yes they've got corned beef and cabbage egg rolls.

And we have some wonderful arts up here too! Not too shabby. Although I did really enjoy my visit to Chicago when I was there a few years back, I like it here. Bad weather and all!

C'mon up some time and visit! I'll take you to Uncle Hugo's. . . ::GRIN::

Well, Maggie, if they feature Mofongo and Pasteles on the menu, then it for sure is Puerto Rican. (My God, a Puerto Rican restaurant in the Twin Cities. Who would have thunk it. When I went to carleton in sunny Northfield a decade and a half ago a Latino in that Midwestern tundra was as exotic as a chia pet. Yet, I see with pleasure that there is not only a Puerto Rican restaurant but a Cuban one as well and the Latin night life -as well as the population- in the lovely Twin Cities is picking up at a faster speed than right here in Chicago.)

Hey everybody. I hope that everyone liked the movie as much as I did. How many more years before Earth is like the movie. I give us another 20. Oh I think I hear the bombs now. That sucks will good luck in the afterlife.

Hey Alejandro!

I will look forward to hearing more about the Puerto Rican statehood issue. I remember that we discussed the status of Puerto Rico when I was in elementary school and I still don't understand why they're still hanging in this limbo. I'm more inclined towards let the Puerto Ricans pick their own status and then help them achieve it, whatever it is. This country has a long history of accepting new states, if Puerto Rico wants to be one, fine, if they don't, well that seems fine too. I've never been there, so about all's I know is that Azul, a local restaurant, says their food is Puerto Rican - it's heavily into seafood, so it seems plausible.

Say on!

Barney:

You went to Puerto Rico???? Unbelievable. The island status issue is so complex (we are dealing after all with 100 years of US presence on the island; the political persecution of pro-independence supporters by the FBI, the government and everybody else; as well as a people who support statehood without knowing one iota of what being a state entails since statehooders have been selling to islanders the idea of a 51st state as that of a welfare state wherein Uncle Sam pours in tons of money on welfare and we won't have to pay a single cent for it) that a brief message in this here forum wouldn't make it any justice. I would like to share with you folks a much better thought-out perspective later on. (After all I lived in the island for 18 years of my life and in the U.S. for about 18 more and that seems to give me a better perspective now than way back when when I was a Knee-jerk independentista that did not know his own history well enough.)

A referendum was held about two years ago in the island focusing on some of the issues addressed by that HR bill (which got stuck in the Senate floor thanks to Trent Lott). It was one of those moments right out of García Márquez. The majority of Puerto Ricans actually voted for a none of the above option on the referendum, rejecting every one of the status alternatives presented by the government.

More later, kids. I promise. Ooooooohhhhhh, I am gonna have so much fun in this here board now. You don't know it Barney but you touched on an issue near and dear to my heart.

Rick: If you're out there, please delete my first half-assed effort to the board today. I don't know what happened. (When I say my first effort, I mean the one below Mr. Michael Head's effort. This system o' mine is acting weird.

Until next time. . .

Once more to the trenches, once more.

Xanadu: On the matter of my web site. I am pleased to hear you visited. That you took time to do so is what is important. So you didn't find anything you liked. Well, you stopped by, and that is enough for. As you may have read I don't claim to be the best of the best, and that in my fumblings I aspire to the likes of Harlan Ellison.

As to the bit about folks here not giving to charities and the likes, if you took it as an insult, you shouldn't have. (Although I can see why you did.) Folks here are, generally, a smart bunch and are appropriately suspcious in response to remarks like mine.

Now. If you had read along (and I take it you did?) you notice I sorta side-slammed the whole notion that come the day after Thanksgiving (in the US, anyway) you can suddenly make yourself something more than you are the rest of the year by dropping coin on some effort until the end of the year.

For what it's worth the money generated off that ad goes to pay the monthly rent on the site. This month, though, I going in the red on that to drop fifty percent to charity.

Speaking of charity, if you would like to know which charity the money is going to, drop me a line. I would post it here, but a) I don't really want to cause the folks at that particular effort unnecessary grief (believe me: They get enough as is; someone decided to torch their warehouse last year, and two of their semi tractor trailers the year before that because of their skin color) and b) because I don't really think holding them up publically is necessary.

Anyway, like I said, you stopped by my site, you had your say, and that's what the basics come down to.

Onward. I see Paul T. Riddel has returned to cyberspace, so maybe tomorrow the world will be a better place.

Until next time. . .

Finder:
How interesting to hear your comments regarding multicultural
societies. We here have seen our nation engaged in a great experiment in allowing all to keep their cultural heritage intact, while building a Canadian identity. Problem is, just try
to ask a canadian what it is to be Canadian? I can't muster much of an answer to that one.
We've two official languages; English and French, three founding
cultures; English, French and Native Canadian, a truly global spectrum of ethnic societies, and somehow we keep it together,
albeit with various degrees of rancor and animosity.
Racism? Yep, got that. From organizations like our home grown
Heritage Front, to an aside between strangers in a bus-stop.
We continue to fight over the self-autonomy of our native peoples, and never seem to respect that they merely demand the same levels of control over their lives that a white person has.
We have more often decided to take confrontational stances over
how diverse we would like to be, rather than build a nation which
appreciates how diversity can improve societies. Yet somehow, the centre seems to hold. We've not needed a Marshall Titov's
iron fist of control to hold us together!
I cannot speak to any country which can arrogantly say "We will
accept one mother tongue", when all nations in the Western Hemisphere are built on immigration.
Is my country perfect? Not by a long shot! Still, if you were to ask Canadians there is still a core belief that the problems can be solved.
What about Quebec? They've had two referendi, and, as yet,
haven't voted to leave (granted, the last one was quite close).
But even if they decided to go, they still want to share our currency, our military,(such as it is), and the cost of our social safety net.
A purely Canadian solution, eh?
More, a little later. --Mike

Once to the trenches, once more.

Xanadu: On the matter of my web site. I am pleased to hear you visited. That you took time to do so is what is important. So you didn't find anything you liked. Well, you stopped by that, and that is enough for. As you may have read I don't claim to be the best of the best, and that in my fumblings I aspire to the likes of Harlan Ellison.

As to the bit about folks here not giving to charities and the likes, if you took it as an insult, you shouldn't have. (Although I can see why you did.) Folks here are, generally, a smart bunch and are appropriately suspcious in response to remarks like mine.

Now. If you had read along (and I take it you did?) you notice I sort side-slammed the whole notion that come the day after Thanksgiving (in the US, anyway) you can suddenly make yourself something more than you are the rest of the year by dropping coin on some effort until the end of the year.

For what it's worth the money generated off that ad goes to pay the monthly rent on the site. This month, though, I going in the red on that to drop fifty percent to charity.

Speaking of charity, if you would like to know which charity the money is going to, drop me a line. I would post it here, but a) I don't really want to cause the folks at that particular effort unnecessary grief (believe me: They get enough as is; someone decided to torch their warehouse last year, and two of their semi tractor trailers the year before that because of their skin color) and b) because I don't really think holding them up publically is necessary.

Anyway, like I said, you stopped my site, you had your say, and that's what the basics come down to.

Onward. I see Paul T. Riddel has returned to cyberspace, so maybe tomorrow the world will be a better place.

Until next time. . .

Maggie,

Only because my curiosity was piqued, I got out my spade and went to work... The text of House of Reps bill HR 856 (which concerns itself with Puerto Rico and statehood) mentions some stats from a 1993 Government of Puerto Rico plebiscite concerning the island's political status. The results (according to the bill) were divided thusly: 48.6% in favor of a commonwealth, 46.3% in favor of statehood, and only 4.4% in favor of independence. As far as I've been able to dig out, HR 856 passed the House in 1998, but I don't know if it's alive or dead in the Senate.

While searching, I also stumbled across a grassroots lobby named English First, which (from what I've read so far on their website) claims opposition to Puerto Rican statehood on the basis of their concerns over how small a percentage of the population of the island speaks English, and the impacts this would have on their having a viable, functional US State government structure. Of course, the very name English First should tell you all you need to know about their 'concern' (or, to quote from their web site, "Over 150,000 concerned Americans have joined English First... They are tired of seeing the government use their tax money to divide Americans on the basis of language or ancestry.")

In a global community where the citizenry of many nations are comfortably bilingual, I do marvel at the arrogant self-importance of people with short-sighted political agendas. Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses - just make sure they can properly conjugate the verb "to be", and that they check their heritage at the door. Hmm. I wonder if these are the same people who think wherever they go in the world, people should speak English THERE as well...

Barney - everything you've heard about the beltway is true. I can testify. Except maybe on the subject of unlicensed animal husbandry - though I do work in Reston, VA, home of the celebrated Reston monkey house (if you've read "The Hot Zone", you know), so I can spill the juice on potentially plague-bearing primates...

Doc - good to see you!

Hey Barney -

Last I heard, Puerto Ricans rejected statehood in a vote some years ago. Not by a huge margin as I recall, but enough - something about not being able to reach a consensus about either statehood or independence. Have to go and check on dates on this and will get back to you with it when I find it. Personally, I think we should just have another referendum and let the question be independence or statehood. Of course, with the way this election has gone, somebody down there will start suing somebody else because they didn't win. . . ;-)

Later
Maggie

Jim,

Thank you for the opportunity to donate 50% of my click-through time/revenue-generation to a random charity. The thought is so clearly well-intentioned.

I just have a problem when it is an oh-so-thinly veiled plea to put money in YOUR pocket.

I happily put money in the pocket of those who entertain me - enlighten me, or even simply distract me. I will pay serious bucks for the opportunity to let HE's words mangle my noodle. But, and this is the big one... I get value for those bucks, I get a rich experience for my time.

I have visited your site on two occasions, based on specific invitations you issued here. In each case, I read what was placed before me, and I left. I'm sorry, but I was not particularly entertained, enlightened or even faintly distracted. Since it failed my basic criteria, I chose not to generate any revenue for your site. (This reflects exactly one opinion, my own, and is thus worth the value of the paper it's written on.)

But, I seriously resent it when you impugn the generosity of those who frequent this board.

I have lurked on this board for years - gotten into a scrap or two with others, and I'm sure I've offended more than a few with my point of view.

Over those same years, I've seen more genuine compassion and generosity than I've often encountered in the "real" world. These people help each other and they help those in need. Many worthy charities have been championed on this board, and I'm sure many more will be.

But, all of those charities have shared one common thread - they were championed for the cause they represented and they never, ever, personally enriched those who championed them.

Your plea, and your attempt to guilt those who might read this into clicking on your ad banner is both shameless and brazen. I reject it.

I ask everyone on this board to similarly reject it. If you donate to a cause - please do so because you wish it, because you care for it and because it's worthy - not because someone is trying to lay a guilt trip on you.

If I have offended anyone unintentionally with this post, I humbly apologize. For those I have offended deliberately, I stand resolute.

Good enough. I just thought, me being thick as a brick and twice as dumb, I may have missed an oh-so important missive about Paul packing it in to join the ranks of the electorally challenged in Florida.

Until next time. . .

Jim:

AS promised, here's Paul's response: "I'm waiting to hear back from SiteAmerica's customer service people, but I have a feeling their servers went down last night, as it died at 5:00 CST. One way or another, I'll either get an answer, or I'm switching to a new hosting company. Arioch knows I get enough offers in the mail these days.

Cordially,

Paul T. Riddell

The Healing Power of Obnoxiousness:
The Paul T. Riddell Essay Archive
http://www.hpoo.com
"Essays, Articles, and Tantrums, All Delivered Steaming Hot To Your Doorstep
Each Monday" "

Jim:

I just e-mailed Paul a note to see what's up with his website. Will post his response here as soon as I hear from him.

Two items:

First, I just surfed into the home of himself, Paul T. Riddell, and found a large hole in cyberspace. It seems his domain has disappeared. Anyone know what this is about?

Second, since this is the big giving time of the year (sez Them Who Know Such Things), I want to remind interested folk that when you visit my web site (to no doubt read my half-assed attempts at writing, doing the likes of Harlan Ellison) and you click the banner ad at the bottom of content pages there you are generating a few cents in revenue. For the month of December 2000 fifty perecent of this revenue will be donated to charity.

I know: Folks around these parts are not into charity-like things, but those who few are: Thank you.

Until next time. . .

To Barney, Doc, et al.:
Like the comments, and find myself in total agreement, except
for Doc's assertion that protest voting never works, if I've read his comments correctly. I just cannot vote, and this was the mentality of many who voted here in Canada, and I would suspect, a large number of Americans, to thwart what I perceive to be a greater evil. I cannot accept that strategic voting will ever improve the quality of government that both of our countries experience, especially when Americans find their two primary parties, and we in Canada find in our four national parties becoming much more convergent in their party policies.
Perhaps I, and a few others, are becoming more bitchy about the
blurring of the political lines, but it would seem to be a good thing to see leaders, whether or not I agree with their platforms, coming out and expressing different ideas of where a nation should be going. I'm not willing to accept government by the "grey men", the focus group and the polls. Remember the LBJ
administration, and his attempt the govern by popular opinion.
Where did that wind up?

*** DOC ***
Good to have you back!
*** Michael ***
The Canadian Conundrum regarding all those Quebecois giving the collective rasberries to the rest of Canada got me to thinking about one of Amuricans favorite knee jerk catch phrases for their collective unhappiness, namely, disenfranchisement. What politicos call the fly-over factor. Those poor bastards the folks in the beltway have to "fly over" all the time to get home. I was in Puerto Rico for a week this summer and had an opportunity to talk to actual Puerto Ricans about the issue of statehood. The only reason I think America has so steadfastly dragged its feet on this issue [other than tax base issues and FEMA bale-outs during hurricanes] is that it screws up the 50 star pattern on our flag. Why else would a country prone to occasional imperialistic fits stop at 50? So, anyways, I'm talkin' to these folks and their giving me the line about how people inside the beltway are making decisions that deeply affect their lives and they don't have adequate representation considering their political status and demographic blah blah blah and I go waitaminute! You're disenfranchised? You ARE American! Much more American then you know! You have almost exactly the same political status as everybody who was ever an American born outside of a Kennedy compound! PLUS, you have the added advantage of not having a representative who will inevitably embarass the bejeezus out of you over some sort of scandal involving lies, extortion, kickbacks, blowjobs, or unlicensed animal husbandry . Be Happy!
My political thought for the day.
And if all this sounds like somebody who once accused Hubert Humphry of doing Black Acid and weeping to strangers in elevators it's because I hit that Thompson link. I'm GLAD to say I was wrong about something and more glad to see HST getting paid to vent. Sports, or politics, it's all a big show and the political stuff for Rolling Stone came from the Wenner "sports desk" as I recall now anyways. Kazart!

I tried to get a look at that photo, but the machine said, "You
can't get there from here." This is gonna keep me up nights; and
that's not merely sarcasm -- most of the regulars know I'm a pro-
fessional owl anyhow, most of the time.
Nice to see *some* familiar faces; not so nice to see others;
those, I refer to as "familiar feces". Not to worry, though --
the questionable party hasn't turned up since Barney's last (or
perhaps I should say "most recent") rebuttal.
I voted. Still don't know who won, but have a clear idea who
lost. It was a question, this time, of voting for with or without
grease. I voted for with. When all is said and done (which could
be a while), these days, the average citizen votes for his right
to bitch. Simple: Didn't vote? Don't bitch. You got no
complaint -- you did nothing to change the situation, ergo you
must be content with the situation; so if it'd ducky by you...
don't bitch. Of course you have the right to not vote; spot-
welded to that, however, is the right to not bitch. There are
goobers beyond the counting (or recounting) out there who jolly
well vote because they think *because* they vote, they will make
it so, like writing to Santa will get you all you want. So they
may not be too bright -- maybe they don't know how to take the
intellectual high-ground and protest by not voting. Votes always
but ALWAYS beat un-votes or non-votes or "refused" votes.
Harlan did a nice little number on the subject of apathy -- in
a preface to one of the stories in SHATTERDAY, the name of which
eludes me. But check it out. The Moral/Intellectual "high- ground" does you no good if it means the schmucks win. I can just
see a guy in an internment camp: "I don't get it, I protested by
not voting! Obviously I'm *smart*. What the Fuck am I doin'
HERE?"
Speaking of smart, I know when it's time to hit "send message."

Cheers,
Doc

Hey, everybody. Hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving.

I just had a bit of a creep-out experience, surfing around eBay. I came upon a listing for the HERC LP of "Harlan Ellison Reads Jeffty is Five." Being interested, I click on it, and up popped the image of the cover, which I had never seen before.

It completely wigged me out.

Now, on second look, it's an entirely appropriate image for the cover. Jeffty looks kind of....off, like he's hearing things the rest of us can't. But damn, it's a creepy picture. Anybody know who drew it? I'd be highly interested in seeing more of his or hers work.

Here's a link to the eBay listing so you can see what I mean:

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=515361880

Thanks,
Joseph

For those interested Hunter S. Thompson has a new rant every Monday on ESPN.COM.
It's a ripe mixture of politics, sports and The Culture.
Today's installment can be found at: http://espn.go.com/page2/s/thompson/001204.html

Todd:
Greetings from the great white banana republic.
I'm not really interested in any of the five parties (four would
be considered national; the Bloc Quebecois is solely regional,
and only interested in creating a independent Quebec). I guess
I would fit into the Burroughsian concept that government is
merely a mechanism for the economicly powerful few to control
the blissfully ignorant many.

Hey, Michael--you have five arguably major parties in the former Dominion...which one do you discount? (Not that I don't understand your desire for the National Front, um, Canadian Alliance, to disappear.) I probably would've voted Green there, as I did here, if I couldn't stomach NDP's attempt at centrism. At least Dayism hasn't spread much.

QUESTION FOR RICK WYATT:

Is there any chance you might institute a regular Q&A feature with Mr Ellison on this site? I really enjoyed it when he posted to the board. A good model for an author Q&A is at the Michael Moorcock site: http://www.multiverse.org/sport/qa.jsp

Anyway, even if you don't do a Q&A feature, thanks for a great website.

Just a brief afterthought, in lieu of what's being said about
the malaise in our political process. Do many remember the
fine Ellison short story "Santa Claus vs. S.P.I.D.E.R.?" In the
spirit of the season, howsabout we come up with a list of
those reprehensible political weasles who continue to infuriate
us by spewing forth their arrogant, self-righteous bile. As
I recall, nearly all the original villians are dead (a fact HE
must happily relish), and there is such a voluminous spate of
replacements.
As for me, I would pick our very own Doris - excuse me, Freudian
slip - Stockwell Day. For the Americans playing along, Mr. Day
is a combination of George Bush and a Jehovah's Witness.
He believes that a platform of tax cuts, religious fervour, and racism is just the right mix for the Canadian public.
Fortunately, we Ontarians weren't buying.
In closing, perhaps a little thing to think about. We may be
disgusted and sickened by these people, but we still think
enough of our systems to bitch about it. It comes from caring I guess.

First, thanks for the responses. Yes, I did vote, but I refused my ballot, an old English tradition which states my disgust for the four principle parties. I've always felt that the only wasted vote is the unused one.
I'm not going to profess that I've any viable solutions to both
our nation's problems, but I've a few thoughts. Let's start with the internet. This purported bastion of free speech would be a
perfect starting point for a grass-roots initiative to take back the process from both the moneyed interests, and the social lunatic fringe which seems to capture control of our parties.
Certainly, it is not going to be the sole solution, but it's
a start.
I can't speak to voter apathy, but there is no defense for letting the opportunity to express choice in our elected officials go by the boards. I can only offer an admonition,
(I'm not sure who said it) that we will not be brought into
fascism at the point of a gun; we will be lead into it willingly.

HE has jacket comments on the new Bester, REdemolished. I believe they are new vis a vis his prior Bester jacket comments.

Does anyone know the exact airdates of Harlan's five (or more) appearances on the old Tomorrow show with Tom Snyder? I vaguely but fondly remember these shows, including HE with Ray Bradbury, circa 1973, and HE with several Star Trek cast members, circa 1976. I recall how annoyed James Doohan was by HE's remarks about Trek. Are these old shows available on video?

Fortunately, I taped most of HE's guest shots on The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder. Ellison and Snyder were always great together. Alas, Snyder is gone, and The Late Late Show is now an idiotic program with a smarmy host.

Hey, Michael--you going to vote on Monday?

I took a position-quiz on the Politics Now website, I think it was...will reseek the link. It seems NDP sensibly agreed with my positions on the issues 100% of the time. Was mildly amused to see the next-highest concordance was with the Progressive Conservatives, the Tories, at 80%; Liberals and Bloc Q at 50; and the National Alliance *coff* at something like 15%.

MICHAEL: Well, non-Republicrats have somewhat less chance of achieving national office in the US than Day of the not-quite-National Alliance has of becoming PM up there, or of your getting an NDP-majority government. Some like to insist this is a good thing, but it does mean that the parties have as much a stranglehold on most of the "viable" candidates in this country as in the ones we're encouraged to sneer at, with their (such as your country's) parliamentary goverments, which through some sort of fantasy are supposed to be more prone to "gridlock" than ours. Any US President who has dared do so, or knew how to manipulate the Congress, has been able to push through bold moves at least since Wilson's day, and Lincoln and not a few others were no slouches at this as well; this is not overwhelmingly different from the carte blanche PMs with majorities often feel they have. Our conservative system has made our governmental succession more stable, perhaps, but it has also ensured increasing alienation of voters, more practical disenfranchisement, as when the Democrats run 1970s Republicans for President and VP, versus the Republicans' Reagan-lite (and who would've thought That possible?) team. I must admit the usual argument against small-party voting in the US, "They can't win," which has been proven false in a number of gubernatorial races over the last decade, the obvious step below the presidency...I must admit that after hearing forever that "They can't win," that we have ended up with large-party candidates who can't win, either. Almost as good as the Green ticket getting 5%.

***Michael***

The closest we've come to civil insurection down here post Vietnam War was when Americans had to wait in line for gasoline.
And that was just pissing and moaning, not actual action. The ONLY thing that could stir this population to actual mass uprising is the threat of removal of their cable TV access.

I've become interested in the comments I've been reading , and I'm a little frustrated by what I hear. Admittedly, I'm more than assured that one vote alone is not going to do a great
deal (unless a person lives in a society of one), but I'm a firm believer in the principle stated by Thomas Jefferson, that a nation generally receives the quality of government they deserve. Yes, your two candidates are pathetic, but there are avenues to address this. I'm not certain of the American process, (I barely understand the Canadian system) but there is
options open to those who choose, such as an organized write in ballot.
I keep hearing about this large of mass of voter anger towards
the self-serving, indolent representatives that are continually returned to Washington. I wonder what would happen if real resistance were eveer to coalesce.

*** Peg ***
I've often thought 'none of the above' was a viable alternative for various electoral positions. Unfortunatly, as you say, it's not practical for the presidency in this country as we need a Commander in Chief slot [not something I would willingly abdicate to the Pentagon and the NSC] and a figurehead with veto power. Just say no indeed.
My opinion regarding how we ought to handle the presidency goes like this. Write up a really specific job description. Make the job pay whatever auto exec CEO's or Michael Jordan makes IF approval ratings are maintained above a certain predetermined average. OR, assign the job to the most qualified person. Make service MANDATORY or face revokation of citizenship AND [since this extremly qualified person probably already has a fulfilling career elsewhere] allow time off for good behavior also linked to approval ratings. Because the job is thankless even with free meals, plane rides and chubby interns. IMHO

First, let me own up - I didn't vote. Initially the reason was I have been overwhelmingly busy. But as the election grew closer in time, the reason changed - I became completely unmotivated by the choices available to me. There was no one running for president I really wanted to support. I had maybe a smidgen of interest in voting for Nader, but mostly so that I wouldn't vote for the other folks. (I admit that I have now forgone my right to complain about the presidency for the next 4 years).

I don't feel people should be required to vote for candidates that they do not support. At the same time, I feel that the voting public should be required to exercise their right and privelege to vote. So, why do we not add a "none of the above" category? Then you can demonstrate your decidation to the democratic process by voting without compromising their principles, beliefs, or choices.

Take it a step further, and if "none of the above" wins, then the position goes vacant. (yes, okay, it's not really practical, but it would send a great message.) After all, why should we let a politician represent someone, not to mention using up tax money and time and space, for a segment of the population that does not support them?

Folly I suppose....

Barney! I would never invite you to leave. However, I think that people not voting is how we got into this mess in the first place. No, I do not think that all people voting are paying attention. How the heck could I? Have you seen some of the people in Congress??? But, not voting isn't going to change anything in this country, ever. And, I really hate reading some naive twit telling me first thing in the morning not to vote because all the world is evil, etc. The fact is, this country is far from perfect. On the other hand, I think it's far better than the most, if not all, of the alternatives. Sorry, I don't think that all the world is terrible. I don't even think that all of this country is terrible. Nor all business, nor pretty much all of anything. Then again, I'm not 22 anymore and have given up the strict devotion to absolutes that I was so fond of at that age!

Anyway, first thing in the morning, after a bad night and no coffee and some little twit is trying to tell me how wrong the world is and how wrong I am for choosing to honor the struggle that gave me the vote and all I can think about are the women locked in their houses in Afghanistan because of the Taliban's edicts, or the woman in India who's husband only believed that she was raped because he was there with her when it happened. Sorry, I don't believe it's so bad here. Perfect? Nope. In need of improvement? Absolutely. But I am not giving up my vote, or my jury duty next week, without violence. When I was a child, I had female relatives who told me about women getting the vote. Nope, not giving up my vote for anything.

Greetings fellow Ellisonian's
VCR ALERT!!!!! The Psi-Factor with Grifter in it is due out on the