Wormhole Electric 2013 in Review

So we begin another amazing year, Don. Did you know that we’ve published 6 books, 2 books for an individual author, written over 125 posts, entertained over 4000 page views for people from around the world! Thank you! Thank all of you for participating in this conversation, even if just to read it. I enjoy reading Don’s words and often find myself wishing I was as passionate about different subjects as he is.

I was a bit hesitant at first to start this blog, kind of wondering if we’d run out of things to talk about like an old couple at the dinner table. But we haven’t yet! Our conversations have run the gambit from music to heroes, to books, to movies, to movies from books,  travel, and Don has listened nicely to my explorations into the Wired Generation.

I thought I’d take a few lines to talk about the writers for Wormhole Electric. It is because of their talent and willingness to share their work that Don and I got to together. That in itself is a story! The writers come from different backgrounds as well as different parts of the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. Several are mothers with young children – they write at nap time or when the kids finally get to sleep at night or between clients or on the coffee break at work. One is a stay at home dad who has an audio book company, another is a dad who solves technical computer problems from home. We have an IT expert, a lighting designer, an accounts payable specialist, an artist / song writer, a real estate specialist, a couple of teachers…

You can tell from the topics there are several who enjoy the supernatural and the macabre, others who write fantasy like it was their daily life experience. Science fiction rolls off the keyboards of some while they twist everyday life with the spice of science and fantasy.  

A couple of months ago, we asked the authors some questions about how they get their story ideas, do ideas keep them up or wake them up at night,  or whether or not their characters talk to them when they’re not writing about them? Or how do they deal with the times great ideas come to them and they can’t write the idea down! Almost all responded that their characters are fairly disciplined and able to wait to comment until the writer gets up in the morning, but then, LOOK OUT! Several mentioned that they keep a small tape recorder handy and one admits to using his wife because his ideas often come when they’re driving on the interstate! One writer has been able to write his travel adventures into his stories. All admit to hearing their characters “discussing the current situation they are in”, but no one admits to being pestered by characters who just want a better role in the story. Well, I did back when I was doing the fiction portion of my writing.

So how did we all get together? I talked about this way back in one of the beginning blogs with Don, but I’ll say it again. It started with a “If you could do anything, what would you do” type of question on a coffee break. Someone heard, offered to help me put the website together, I mentioned it to friends who had friends who loved to write… it really is one of those “follow your dream” things. I didn’t give up my day job – but a lot of that has to do with how much I love teaching. We’re not rich – yet. I think our time will come. We have too much talent writing, editing, designing for Wormhole to end up as anything less than spectacular!

I was asked once why we call the monthly ezine “Science Fiction Fantasy Transports”. When we were originally putting this concept together, several of us were speculating about the transporter used on Star Trek. It transported people to “other places”, which is what fiction reading should do for the reader – transport them to another world, another dimension, another concept… ezine Transports were born.

So what’s next? Science Fiction Fantasy Transport 27!

Ariel Cinii has provided us with three books so far, and is now allowing us to showcase her final book, The Telepaths’ Song which we will be running throughout the first six months of 2014. I think this book is perhaps her greatest! It is well written, has a tight story line that pulls the reader to end of the story, characters that are well fleshed out and believable! Even though it is science fiction/steam punk, it still has to be believable! Jack Levravich and Lisa Manifold are providing the set-up episodes so that in February, they can wrap their stories up. They’ll take a much needed rest – I’ll give them a couple of months, then I imagine they will both be back with more great stories.

We’re pleased to have SM Baughns back with us in April along with O’Ryan Jackson. These two are our macabre specialists. Their stories are tight, grizzly, well developed, and have just enough of a twist in them that you really don’t see the ending coming.

Colby Elliott and Jeph Keir are back in February. Colby is our stay-at-home specialist and Jeph Keir has blessed us with the Iron Sky Empire stories. For both of these writers, all their work is good, and each new story is better than the last.

In March, Tamara will publish another story with us. She is one of those fascinating authors who can take every day happenings and weave in science fiction in such a way that by the end of the story, you’re more than willing to believe the story she has created. You believe it hook, line and sinker.

Me? I’m working on non-fiction at this point in time. I enjoy the research process and sharing what I find out. Through the blog, I’ll keep you all informed as to those “did you know?” moments that I stumble on concerning the Wired Generation. In May, I’m thinking that Don and I have put together enough riddles that we could publish the best ones in a Riddle Me book type of thing. I have to have Don’s permission to do this – please note that I’ve been asking Don for over a year now to come on board as a writer because I know he writes, but he’s side stepped me so far. Maybe this is the way to get him involved!

 

Well, I think I’ve used up my weekly blog real estate, as Don would put. Time to wish all of you a great New Year! Follow your dream! It is worth it! Give up your day job? That’s up to you. The point is, enjoy what you’re doing! That is what gives life worth.

Happy New Year everyone!

Carolyn 

The Twelve Minutes of Christmas

 

 

 

Hi Carolyn,

 

Hope your Christmas is prancing right along. Its been hectic here as it always is with hordes of relatives descending upon us. I went to bed Christmas eve and was asleep even before I hit the pillow. Strangely enough, I woke up in what seemed like a moment later and found myself already dressed and out in the living room.

“Funny,” I thought, “ I don’t remember getting dressed!”






Imagine my surprise to stumble over Santa in one of the living room chairs looking like he’d been thoroughly through the ringer. 


　
“Hi Don,” he said in a voice hoarse from twenty-three straight hours of top volume “ ho-ho-ho's “

“Hi Santa, “ I replied, not quite sure what to make of things.

“I suppose you are wondering what I’m doing here?” 
 
“Well , yah I am. You must have had your fill of milk and cookies by now, and we haven't left any out for over a quarter-century anyhow.”

“Look , I am tired beyond belief so I’ll cut to the chase. Here’s the deal. I had just finished my final run in the Aleutian Islands where the International Dateline takes that big jump to the west. I was hi-tailing it for the pole when I got the text from the workshop crew and had to come back here.  It seems you’ve been stupendously good this year but got overlooked by the logistics elves. I can’t really blame them, though. They’ve been working with a skeleton crew because a bunch of U.S. elves from Apple in California that we usually use at this time of year had been seconded by the government to help clean up this this Obamacare thing and weren't available.

 That Apple 27 inch PC that had your name on it somehow got lost in transit and there's only one thing left that I can offer you. I’ve  got just enough magic dust left to give you 12 minutes of time travel,"  he said slapping his white gloves impatiently on the arm of my favourite chair. 




 Normally I could offer you more but there was a massive run on this time travel stuff by Republicans in The United States. They all wanted to go back to   the eighties and pick Ronald Reagan’s brain for ideas about future directions for the GOP.

　
“Okay, I need some time to consider this though.”  I answered. " Can I go backwards and forwards?"


 " Yes, Don! " He frowned a most unSanta-like frown and tapped his fingers staccato style on the other chair arm.

　
“C’mon man this is a pretty major thing and a chance that few get,” I shot back, defensively.
 
“Okay!" he fumed, " Since you’re getting twelve minutes I’ll give you 12 seconds to make up your mind. I’m starting the countdown now,” he said and began to put his gloves back on.

In what seemed a lot more like a twelfth of a second than twelve, he spoke again.  "C'mon , Mr. Good fella. Time's up.”


"Okay, I got it!  Here's what I want :




2 minutes at the Cavern Club, 10 Mathew Street Liverpool, in 1962  for a performance of I Saw Her Standing There. 

  Oh yes and it has to be after Ringo joined the band.

And please don't ask - What band ?







2 minutes on the moon in July 21, 1969 ( at 2.56 UTC ) with Neil Armstrong just as his foot hits the moon soil and he makes that iconic  declaration to Walter Cronkite and millions of  mesmerised folks glued to their black and white sets.



　







2 minutes at the Drury Lane Theatre in London in 1762 for the end of Act 3 of Two Gentlemen of Verona, the first performance of the first play by a struggling young playwright named William Shakespeare.













2 minutes in his lab  with  Nicola Tesla  just as his experiments reveal that electricity can be produced simply and effectively.  














2 minutes somewhere and hopefully sometime soon for the discovery of a cure for cancer.










2 minutes in wherever its going to happen for the first substantiated contact with extra terrestrial life."






"Okay, Don, I’m absolutely and totally bagged from last nights global shenanigans, but now that I have some details, we can do this thing."

A once spotless glove, now caked with chimney soot, grabbed my arm and in a trice we were outside on the front lawn. Santa nudged my elbow impatiently.


 "Hop in the sleigh, buckle up and lets get to it, through it, and do it!"


“Ho ho ho” , I heard myself exclaim as we flew out of sight. 



　
　
I thought, upon awakening in my bed, that I'd just chalk the whole thing up to too much merriment and Christmas goodies the night before. 

Well, that's the kind of Christmas it's been here so far. Back atcha later.

 

 

 

 

Don 

 

 

All images sourced from Google Images.

 

Fig. 1 - hollistonreporter.com

Fig. 2 - apple.com

Fig. 3 - taylormarsh.com

Fig. 4 - beatlesbible.com

Fig. 5 - Wikipedia.com

Fig. 6 - spitalfieldslife.com 

Fig. 7 - en.wikipedia.org

Fig. 8 - microscope.com

Fig. 9 - dailygalaxy.com

Cheep ebooks, Smaug and Radagast! and The Wired Generation Continued

For those reading enthusiasts who have e-readers – we’ve decided to celebrate our successful year at Wormhole Electric Publishing by cutting the price of everything published by Wormhole Electric by 50%. This includes the latest Science Fiction Anthology, the Fantasy Collection, Captain Jackson and the Long Trail, and The Serpent Bearer. This also includes all the Transport magazines (ebooks for sale page). I guess this would be our contribution to Black Friday, eh, Don? But, as a publisher, I’m a firm believer in reading, and you can buy from the comfort of your own home – you don’t have to spend any gas money or fight anyone in line! And you can buy internationally! And if you prefer audio books, on the website we even have a link to Colby Elliott's works. What a deal! 

Don, I was glad to hear that you survived the winter weather and were able to treat yourselves and your families to some holiday cheer. I’m not sure how the term “Golden Years” got started. Obviously it is a term that had to come about recently – I know that few people made it to “Golden Years” 100 years ago, and I’m not sure it would have the same meaning it has today.

Our weather has been cold, snow skiffs at night, but nothing that isn’t drivable. We went over the mountain last week to see the grandkids. There is a lot to be said about traveling in the middle of the week, the only traffic were trucks and a couple of cars here and there. We ran into ground blizzards across South Park, but the rest was good driving.

I took the grandkids ice skating. I haven’t been ice skating in years! On top of that, the kid renting skates handed us hockey skates instead of figure skates.  I’m sure you have great ability with hockey skates, Don, and I admit I admire hockey players, but hockey skates are a bit tricky to skate in! Not only are they broad across the toe, the blade itself rocks heel to toe. This is probably the feature that gives hockey players so much maneuvering ability, but it sure makes skating unsteady!

Okay, I have to come clean, we went and saw The Hobbit, The Desolation of Smaug. So often the second movie of a trilogy is weak, nothing more than the set up for the third climatic movie … with Peter Jackson’s trilogy, I guess you could say  movies one and two are set ups for the third movie… anyway, it is fantastic! Jackson did an outstanding job putting it all together.

I continue to marvel at how well Martin Freeman plays Bilbo! It is the way I imagined Bilbo to be. Richard Armitage as Thorin and Ian McKellen as Gandalf are also right on. But the character I’m really taken with is Radagast played by Sylvester McCoy. So expressive! So impulsive! The only spoiler I’ll give is the title of the movie is misleading. If you get a chance, go! See it! Enjoy it! And then wait with me for another year so this story line can be resolved! Argh!

I noticed in the Comics this morning, Peanuts classic fulfilled the war against Christmas in about 8 frames. Yeah, Christmas is a little over the top in commercialism. But I have come to the conclusion that I have the choice as to how much I participate in it. I also realize that if Christmas was to be banned, a good portion of the stores and companies I shop at throughout the year would be gone within 24 months. Christmas is a big economic boost, like it or not.I had a picture for this, but decided it was in poor taste. Just because the big guns on TV can do things in bad taste does not mean that I should. I have better roll models.

On that note, I think we’re finally ready for Christmas. I’ll finish off the Christmas cards this evening, most of the wrapping is done, we’ve enjoyed the tree lights for the last couple of weeks (my husband does know how to light a tree!) and I have enough food in the house to feed a small army. We’re not expecting bad weather, cold but no snow, so I think we’ll have a great Christmas season. I remember as a child how I wished for snow; as an adult, I wish for dry roads.

Along the line of the Wired Generation, I got word this weekend that the lady who usually cuts my hair was fired – chronic lateness. In talking with her, her only comment was that she always had a good reason for being late! How could the boss not see that? I didn’t tell her, but I side with the boss who has put up with this for well over a year! Yes! She is a great stylist! But you can’t run a business on great deeds if the employee never shows up to do them. This is a chronic problem I face in the classroom. And I’ve discovered that if I give in in the beginning of the quarter, students will take advantage of that and never get their work in on time the rest of the quarter.

Part of it is the inability on the students’ part to understand what their part in this education process is. The only example I can think at this moment is : telling someone they are  “out of control” and expecting them to suddenly act correctly.  When I’ve talked to kids about being in control, they have no idea what that looks like or what they need to do to be in control. My daughter (an elementary teacher/tutor/aide) pointed out that kids now days don’t realize that there are different ways to act in different situations. They think that they can act one way and always be accepted. 
I look at some of the TV personalities that children and younger people have as models - no wonder they have no idea how to act in public.

As I talk more and more about this with others, I’m getting a lot of feedback from teachers, parents, grandparents, school staff… this continues to be an amazing topic! Before I forget, I’d love to talk to your daughter about her article on gaming!

I’ve been thinking about your thoughts about riddles and I agree! We’ve produced over 120 riddles in the last 14 months! I have a slot open in the April Science Fiction Fantasy Transport ezine and I’m thinking I’ll gather the riddles and publish them. By then we should be well on our way to a whole new level of riddle. Or at least you will be, Don. I’ll be working hard to keep up with your languaging!

Have a great Christmas, everyone!

If you are traveling, travel safe.

Don, stay warm!

Carolyn 

Book covers by Larry Varvel for Wormhole Electric Publications 

All images downloaded from Google Images

Fig 1 – Gus Birthday – Golden Years retrieved from www.bubaboostamps.com  

Fig 2 – Ice Skate retrieved from elaineperlov.blogsport.com

Fig 3 – Baure Supreme one.6 Ice Hockey skates retrieved from www.playitagainsportsma.com

Fig 4 – The Hobbit – Smaug-Movie-Dragons retrieved from screenrant.com

Fig 5 – Mordor’s Review of the Hobbit retrieved from www.thelandofshadow.com

Fig 6 – Idiot of the Week: Those who insist retrieved from www.atheistrev.com

Barbers, Barbarians and Blow-Hards

Hi Carolyn,

So, we got back from  about 900 km of winter driving and am I glad. That had to be the most taxing winter driving I've dealt with in quite awhile - and I grew up in these kinds of conditions. Having the Great Lakes all around you means snow streamers galore.  It was a good family visit on both sides but edged with reminders that the term " Golden Years " can be a  misnomer sometimes. Now,  I did get to drive my dad-in-law to the barbershop that he's dealt with, on and off, for close to half a century. I was feeling adventurous so I decided to have my ears lowered too.




It turned into a genuine old-school barbershop experience. All that was missing was the haze of blue cigar smoke that would have hung over such a place half a century ago. At one point when the barber took his cup of soap, stubby brush and long razor and set to work on his captive customer,  I was immediately transported back to that short story that we all probably ran into at sometime during our early years of education - Just Lather, That's All. by Hernando Tellez . I always tried to use it, Asimov's The Fun They Had and selected parts of A Christmas Carol to read aloud to my grade six students back in my salad days of teaching. When I switched to grade eight I learned, to my dismay, that grade eighters saw themselves as "too cool" to actually be read to. The thought of reading to secondary school students simply didn't present itself, either.

Speaking of the young ones, I've been soap-boxing a bit lately about using kids to advertise. There seems to be a trend, in this area at least, of using kids to sell cars, winter tires, restaurants and such. These aren't creative little vignettes like the VW commercial of a couple of years ago, that use the innocence of youth as a means to propel things along, but rather bald-faced hucksterism where the kids are essentially being the pitchmen and the subliminal message is  "Buy this because I'm so young and cute-sounding ". It's insidious and barbaric marketing.  And don't even get me started on the Angry Birds Prepaid Visa Card thing for kids.

So, it's a short hop from barbarians to blow-hards and that seems to be one of the more absurd manifestations I've noticed this holiday season, as well - The so-called " War Against Christmas" . Normally I wouldn't pay it much heed, and the presence of Bill O'Reilly would effectively push me clear of the whole situation. It's gotten to the point, though, where it's intruding constantly into the regular news flow. It just won't go away quietly and expire. I wish it would, though. It's a very silly, red-herring paranoia. We ultimately keep the the season in our heads and hearts as we see fit, anyhow.



Carolyn, your notes on "the impatient society" , the "one size-fits all mentality" and the whole gamification thing are most intriguing. I can't wait to hear more as your research moves along. Our daughter published an article in one of the media journals a few months ago that looked at gaming and I know she was fascinated by the topic as well.




So, I have given it a bit of thought lately and decided that since you and I have cranked out a " lorry-load" ( as the Brits would say ) of riddles over the last year and a bit, that I will go into riddle withdrawal until 2014. I know that I'll never fully kick the habit but I think I'll wait until the dust has settled on this hectic season. I'll have five weeks in Mexico in Feb. and March to devote to replenishing the larder, anyhow.





 Hopefully all is going smoothly in these last days before the Yule tide rolls in.



Don



All Images sourced from Google Images

Fig. 1 - capturethisphotography.com
Fig. 2 - forum.roadbikerreview.com
Fig. 3 - Volkswagen.com
Fig. 4 - salon.com
Fig. 5 - amusingplanet.com
Fig. 6 - theeverlastinggopstoppers.com

 
 

 
 

Cheap ebooks and The Wired Generation

For those reading enthusiasts who have e-readers – we’ve decided to celebrate our successful year at Wormhole Electric Publishing  by cutting the price of everything published by Wormhole Electric by 50%. This includes the latest Science Fiction Anthology, the Fantasy Collection, Captain Jackson and the Long Trail, and The Serpent Bearer. This also includes all the Transport magazines (ebooks for sale page). I guess this would be our contribution to Black Friday, eh, Don? But, as a publisher, I’m a firm believer in reading, and you can buy from the comfort of your own home – you don’t have to spend any gas money or fight anyone in line! And you can buy internationally! And if you prefer audio books, on the website we even have a link to Colby Elliott's works. What a deal!


Good morning Don,

And The Hobbit is open! I really enjoyed your thoughts about how to pronounce Smaug. Believe it or not, Dragon Dictate actually had Smaug in its “spell that” feature; I was impressed. I can imagine what people have done with your last name – all I have to do remember is what they do with mine and mine is phonetic.

Keeping up with your dictionary mind is hard for me sometimes so I was thrilled when I ran across an article by Rick Newman on the 15 words and phrases we should retire in 2013. He hugely recommends that we retire such great words as bromance and the acronym YO LO(you only live once), and breaking bad should go because it is now normal to break the bubble of  gamification as we have taken edutainment too far in trying to establish the new norm and keep up with our social business. Another one of his pet peeves are words that start with “man”– mancave, manpurse… I think you get the picture.

One of the biggest peeves is the “online waiting room” as with Healthcare.gov concerning Obamacare and having to wait for assistance or answers. Newman maintains that “The whole purpose of the Internet is to eliminate waiting around.” True! And it has created a society of impatient people who believe that not only should they get everything they want, they should have it now. We’ve gone beyond the Burger King Society of just having it your way. This is one of the belief systems that my research into the Wired Generation has uncovered that is not very complimentary of technology and its effects on society.

I have to agree. I have lost sight of how long it takes me to do certain things. The “click and read” mentality that the Internet fosters has helped me develop a bit of impatience with most things that take longer than an hour to do.  

I think the most insightful lesson I’ve learned so far about this new generation is that many of them believe “one size fits all” – that “all success happens if you follow this procedure exactly.” They want to know what the exact process is so they don’t have to waste time figuring anything out. Critical thinking is not high on their to-do list. If nothing else, they can find the answer on google, youtube or tedtalks. People can now learn what they want when they want at the speed they want. I’m obsolete! Don, you and I have been replaced by personal videos and selfies all locked and loaded into cyber space that allows 24/7 viewing.

I did have an encouraging experience talking with one of my older students though. He mentioned that his favorite class was a problem solving class. When I mentioned the problem solving idea to a classroom filled with what I thought were bright hopefuls, the overall response was “why would I do that?” The glimmer is there – I want to find a way to fan it into a flame.

I just started a book called Present Shock by Douglas Rushkoff. It is about the effects living in the now has on us individually and as a society and culture. I’ll let you know more as I read it.

And thanks for the encouragement, Don. The evaluations and assessments have been completed. Those students who took the time to do the work in a timely manner passed on to bigger and greater adventures than how to write a paper. I wish your daughter well. Quite often, by this time in the year, I need a week to sleep. Hope your daughter gets enough down time to enjoy Christmas.

I enjoyed your thoughts about thunder storms in December. It reminded me of some of the winter thunderstorms I witnessed as a child. My father was working a mine up above Crested Butte back in the late 50s and sometimes he took me with him when he went back up the mountain. One night we got caught in a sheet lightning storm – lightning would strike the mountain and roll down the snowy hillside like a sheet of electricity unfurling in the night. It was impressive! My dad always teased me that what was really impressive was my hair, static electricity caused it to stand end – he thought I looked like a cat in a spat.

I think I’m going to have to give riddles a rest too. My mind just isn’t churning out the words that would give a riddle some sense!

Have a safe trip visiting all the in-laws and relatives, Don. Mine are too far away – for all I complain about technology, for skype I’m thankful.

Everyone, I hope you all find the Christmas presents you are looking for at the prices you’re willing to pay.

Carolyn

 

All images downloaded from Google Images

Book covers designed by L. Varvel for Wormhole Electric  

Fig 1 – Dictionary Archives: Reality Checking 101 retrieved from realitychecking101.com

Fig 2 – Gamification  fo Education retrieved from www.knewton.com

Fig 3 – Waitingroom – article – 2449200 retrieved from www.dailymail.co.uk

Fig 4 – Reckless impatience retrieved from evilhomer145.deviantart.com

Fig 5 – Last minute Christams shopping deals retrieved from Christmasday-2013.com

 

 

  
 
 

Tomaytoes, Tomawtoes and other pronouncements

Hi Carolyn,

A bit of this n’ that before hitting the road for festive family functions.

 

First, hopefully Smaug isn’t the cantankerous type when it comes to how his name is pronounced. The Tolkien promo tsunami is once again afloat and the gold gathering reptile has been referred to variously, in the stuff I’ve heard, as Smog, Smogue, Smawg and even Smag. Kind of a Smaug-asbord of pronunciations you could say ( yes, I just said that! ) I know the feeling. It’s strange to hear what people have done verbally with “ Braithwaite”, on occasion.

Last time around I mentioned, in connection with James T. Aubrey, that it would be good movie fodder but that maybe Hollywood finds it a bit too close to home. Well, I overlooked one movie incarnation that simply has to have been inspired in part by “ The Smiling Cobra” - Bill Murray in Scrooged. I’ll bet if there had never been an Aubrey,  the Frank Cross character in that flick may well have been a different fella.



Got our new kitchen plans and drawings set to go now and just finished picking the countertops, cabinetry, hardware and plumbing features. I’ve attempted to leave most all of those decisions to the one who will be using it the most - my long suffering better half. Right now she’s making sure the old kitchen goes out with a bang, not a whimper. Seventeen different types of cookies, dark and light Christmas cakes and untold other delicacies have emerged from it recently. Each relative we visit on our yuletide junket will be left a half bushell basket full of them and the various jams, jellies and preserves ( including the best dills there ever was or will be ! )  that were churned out in that kitchen in the late summer months of 2013. 

 

 

I have taken the ball on one item though. Our new plumbing will include a motion-sensing faucet which the geek within simply could not resist. I got so carried away with it when we were at the model kitchen that I inadvertently doused my LSBH with the detachable spray before I realized that my simple detaching motion had activated the sensor and she happened to be in the line of fire, er.. water. The  "long-suffering" moniker is well earned, it seems.

Two bigger picture acknowledgements to make before I go. Sad to see Nelson Mandela’s passing because he was such an inspiring figure worldwide but even much sadder to see some of the ultra-right-wing hate spewing in response to various public figures who have made their condolences in the blog and twitter spheres. It makes one shudder, sometimes.



Also sad to have to come back again and observe the thirty-third anniversary of John Lennon’s murder.

In October, 2013 Paul McCartney told Rolling Stone magazine, "I think I could pretty much forgive anyone else, but I don't see why I'd want to forgive him. This is a guy who did something so crazy and terminal. Why should I bless him with forgiveness?" 

 

Ditto for me, Sir Paul.


　

So it’s off to the wilds of Southwestern-Ontario early to-morrow. Preparations and such have once again left me unable to cough up a riddle, but that shall not become the norm. Not on my watch. 


Bye for now.


Don


All images sourced from Google Images

Fig. 1 - hollywoodreporter.com
Fig. 2 - tiff.net
Fig. 3 - moen.ca
Fig. 4 - huffingtonpost.com
Fig. 5 - popmatters.com
Fig. 6 - huffingtonpost. co.uk














　

Lightning, thunder and the Powers That Be

Hi Carolyn,

A few evenings ago I had just settled down at the  keyboard with my ducks all lined up on the pond as it were and was about to crank out this weeks blog. Absolutely out of nowhere the sky lit up and almost immediately the house trembled as a massive thunderclap rolled through. I'm somewhat of a storm junkie. During the temperate months, if the sky darkens ominously, I'm always ready to drop everything and sit back and watch if a crackin' good storm hatches.  A thunderboomer in December here at the 45th parallel is almost never heard nor heard of.  It just popped up out on Lake Huron and rolled in over the Bruce Peninsula almost in a trice. As a weather and gadget geek I am prone to checking the radar four times a day or more but missed this guy. It just seemed to materialize in no time.




 While there weren't widespread outages, the lights went out and stayed that way around here until well past midnight. The whole incident wasn't all that portentious, it's true.  It did, once again, make me think of changing climate patterns and how, atmospherically, something is truly afoot out there. The meteorological powers that be are up to something.






While we're on the powers that be wavelength, last month I shared some thoughts on David Halberstam's " The Fifties" . My reading experience was so gratifying with that one that I decided to go back for seconds and downloaded his " The Powers That Be" tome which is of similar girth and only slightly less grand in its scope. Yuletide interventions mean I've only covered about half of the 800 pages but am ready to share a peek. In it he chronicles CBS, The New York Times, The Washington Post , Time Magazine, and the L.A. Times and the fascinating histories behind what made them The Powers That Be in American media  during the 40's, 50's and 60's ( and clearly beyond).



It serves up more of Halbertam's seamless  writing style that really does make it hard to put down. Watching the Chandler Family  use its flagship paper, the L.A. Times, to help groom and promote a young Richard Nixon for greatness, even though they really couldn't warm up to him in the least. Or seeing how The New York Times grew from one of four dailies scrabbling to survive in the New York market, to become the pre-eminent, and erudite publication that it is to-day  are just a couple of the many engrossing subplots unfolding inside the covers. They'd be great stories even if they weren't true.




 
 
 
 
So far, however, the most memorable character I've encountered clearly has to be James T. Aubrey,  "The hucksters's huckster "  as Halberstam sees him. " A man so nakedly open about what he was and what he wanted - that is, the greediest side of the network so openly revealed and displayed - that even the other hucksters were embarrassed."

CBS turned to Aubrey to be their programming saviour after the quiz show scandals had tarnished their image. It would prove to be a Faustian arrangement of the first order. Aubrey must have inherited the spirit of P. T.  Barnum.  He had an uncanny ability to ferret out and cater to the lowest common denominator. His " greatest legacy to television " Halberstam notes, was a program called " The Beverly Hillbillies," as series so demented and tasteless that it boggles the mind. "

Aubrey's programming mantra might best be summed up in a memo that turned up in congressional investigations after his star had fallen, calling for more " broads, boobs and busts."  Once he berated his creative department noting "... they don't know the public. The people out there don't want to think."

How ironic that NBC should be home to probably the most trusted man in all of modern western history, Walter Cronkite, and this fellow at the same time. To cement his crassness incarnate reputation, Aubrey was heard to say just a day after the JFK assassination that Cronkite so poignantly reported, to the head of CBS news and a close friend of Kennedy, that he should " just play the assassination footage over and over again - that's all they want to see."

He was unapologetic to the max about his intention to lower the highbrow tenor that CBS had always had. " He set out to lower it, " Halberstam observes, " and lower it he did, to a rising graph of CBS profits."  By the end of his 5 year meteoric rise CBS was outdrawing the other two networks combined and the folks on Wall Street took notice and admired, even if they didn't watch his programs at all.  Aubrey's outrageous personal life actually turned out to be his undoing - Rob Ford take note.





Aubrey fought constantly with the news division at CBS. As Halberstam notes " ... the News Division took up too much air time, air time which could be used to sell detectives and hillbillies and monsters." 

 Wow, you were right last month, Carolyn, when you noted that as far as television is concerned some things never change.




I can't believe this hasn't been made into a movie. Maybe it's too close to home for the Hollywood bunch. I think Robert Downey could nail the Aubrey part.





So, I could go on but it's a short page. Next week I'm on the road to the land that Wi-Fi forgot for a Christmas swing to see relatives on both sides so I hope to chat earlier if only briefly.  I can most certainly appreciate what you noted last time around about things being congested so there will be  no riddle here tonight.

I hope you run the evaluation gamut with success, Carolyn. I haven't forgotten what its like quite yet and if I do my daughter, who is doing pretty well the same thing as you are, will keep me posted.

Be back soon. 



Don



All images sourced from Google Images:

Fig. 1 - walcrazy.com
Fig. 2 - ebookstore.sony.com
Fig. 3 - en.wikipedia.org
Fig. 4 - telegraph.co.uk
Fig. 5 - en.wikipedia.org
Fig. 6 - patheos.com