I don't think any of you will think less of me if I admit to not having read any of EE Smith's novels since I turned 15. If you're going to read something like The Lensman series at all it's certainly is better to do so early on so you can get on with your life. None the less this situation has left me with one teeny-tiny grain of uncertainty. Did ( Read more... )

A few pages into the second chapter of China Mieville's novel, The Scar, there's a section noticeably encrusted with exotica. The words in question are, in order of appearance: Skullday, Rinden, Terpsichoria, Tarmouth, Crobuzon, Kelltree, Gnurr Kett, Khadoh, Shankell, seawyrm, Salkrikaltor, Marikkatch, Dustday, & Chainday. Ordinarily I wouldn't ( Read more... )

About ten years ago I was given a photocopy taken from the Commonwealth Gazette, a publication devoted to official announcements of the sort that federal government departments are legally required to make (at least I assume they're so obliged). The reason for this particular page being photocopied was an announcement by the Department of Defence ( Read more... )

According to biologist Robert Sapolsky male baboons who know each other say hello by tugging on each other's penises. I know it's wrong of me but still I can't help but close my eyes and imagine how these fellows would adapt to working in the office environment. I can see them wandering in of a morning, half awake and bleary-eyed: "Morning Ted." * ( Read more... )

Am currently listening to the audio version of David Nobbs' Pratt of the Argus. Mr Nobbs is better known for his character Reginald Perrin, which doesn't surprise me in the least because so far Pratt of the Argus has proved to be rather more episodic and rather less biting than I recall the Reginald Perrin books as ever being ( Read more... )

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I'm a genius. No, don't laugh, I am. Have you though of an easy way to make it onto every best-seller list in the English speaking world? No, thought not. Well I have. And it's dead simple too. Now, as you know our old mate Stephen R. Donaldson has slipped his guards and promised to not only see a new Thomas Covenant trilogy published but to have ( Read more... )

I wouldn't normally bother watching a movie like The Amazing Colossal Man, it is after all rather crap. (Which begs the question, why isn't Bert I. Gordon not more notorious for his production and directing skills than he is?) The only reason I'm familiar with more than the title is that years ago it was trussed and roasted as a sacrifice on ( Read more... )

Didn't it use to be that a celebrated joke that drunks, the imbibers of far too much alcohol, habitually saw pink elephants? It just occurred to me that this particular piece of folklore has very much gone out of fashion. Well yes, it has turned up in an episode of The Simpsons in the last couple of years, but other than that. Actually I don't ( Read more... )

Okay, so it doesn't look like I'm about to return to the peak of health anytime soon. However, a possible solution came to me last night right out of the blue. Perhaps I could sit in a beanbag without causing myself undue discomfort? As luck would have it I was able to purchase both a beanbag and a couple of bags of those little styrefoam beans to ( Read more... )