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T H A N K S !
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02.21.03
SF author Ken MacLeod has been in the news again, sort of. It seems that the
TV comedy The Book Group (UK Channel 4) has a novelist character with
this name, usually referred to as Kenny. After another character had sex with
and then broke up with him, sf fans thrilled to the resonant line "You're a
lousy lay, Ken MacLeod." Any publicity, they say, is good publicity.
As Others See Us. George Clooney on that remake of
Solaris: 'Believe me, Fox wasn't thrilled to do a $47 million sci-fi
film that has nothing to do with sci-fi and everything to do with a man's belief
system.' (Interview, Time Out, Feb 12-19)
Thog's Unfortunate Turns of Phrase. 'Supernatural thriller writer
Doug Clegg has been known as an innovator. In order to bring attention to
himself and try to bore a solid core of genre fans, he became one of the first
ever to give an e-book away for free on the Internet.' (PWDaily, 7
February)
R.I.P. Belated notice: Mary Wesley (1912-2002), UK author
best known for mainstream novels but who also described post-nuclear-holocaust
events in The Sixth Seal (1969), died on 30 December 2002 at home in
Totnes, Devon. She was 90.
Pat 'La Diva Loca' Cadigan, having visited Rome, announced a shock
change of soubriquet this month. She is now styling herself 'La Dolce Diva'.
('You dog, Langford,' she explained.)
Interaction, the 2005 Glasgow Worldcon, can now accept membership
payments on-line
http://www.interaction.worldcon.org.uk/.
Thog's Masterclass. Electromagnetic Dept. '"I am not a
ray expert, but since we started on this trip I have thought a lot about them,"
said Gator. "At least, I thought about those of which we have knowledge. I
remembered that all rays, like an electric current which after all is only a
ray even if it is carried on a wire have a definite velocity. Some travel
fast, others comparatively slowly. I imagine it depends on the wave-length. The
question that sprang to my mind, when I realized we were in the grip of a ray,
was, what was its velocity? If it travelled faster than the Tavona we
were lost. But if we could travel faster than the ray there was a chance of
escape. We were only cruising, you remember, when the ray caught us. Having
turned I put the ship into its maximum velocity, as quickly as I dared and the
experiment succeeded. As we approached the velocity of the ray its power began
to diminish. By the time I was in absolute maximum the ray had lost its force.
In other words, we had out-run it."' (Captain W.E. Johns, The Death
Rays of Ardilla, 1959)
David Langford is an author and a gentleman.
His newsletter, Ansible,
is the essential SF-insider sourcebook of wit and incongruity. He lives in Reading, England with his wife Hazel, 25,000 books, and a few dozen Hugo awards. He continues to add books and Hugos.
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