From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!sf-lovers Newsgroups: fa.sf-lovers Title: SF-LOVERS Digest V5 #63 Article-I.D.: ucbvax.7565 Posted: Tue Jun 8 11:16:00 1982 Received: Wed Jun 9 01:34:53 1982 >From JPM@Mit-Ai Tue Jun 8 11:15:35 1982 SF-LOVERS Digest Sunday, 6 Jun 1982 Volume 5 : Issue 63 Today's Topics: Administrivia - Duplicate Digests, SF Books - "Shortstack" & Macro Story, SF TV - Dr Who, SF Movies - Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan & Rating of Poltergeist & Revenge of the Jedi, SF Topics - Science in the Public Eye, Humor - Genderless Video Games, Random Topics - Duck's Breath Mystery Theater ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sunday, June 6, 1982 6:23AM From: Jim McGrath (The Moderator)Reply-to: SF-LOVERS-REQUEST at MIT-AI Subject: Duplicate Digests Once again, because of those transmission difficulties mentioned a couple of weeks ago, a few people were sent duplicate copies of issue 61 (Friday's digest). Sorry about that. Jim ------------------------------ Date: 02-Jun-1982 From: ANDY VESPER at EVE Reply-to: "ANDY VESPER at EVE c/o" Subject: Looking for a story Does anyone know where the following story might be found? (magazine, anthology, etc) The title is "Shortstack" or something similar and it is about a man named Short. The story begins as he is inflating a plastic hut in the desert - but the plastic was cut wrong and instead of a hut he gets a chimney - the 'stack' of the title. The rest of the story shows how useful this is and why Short is billed as a savior by mankind. I read this at least 10 years ago so I don't remember just where I read it - I think in a mainstream anthology. Does anybody recognize it? Thanks, Andy PS: I am also waiting for \The Universal Pantograph/ by Alexei Panshin - it is the fourth in a series about a Trog named Torve and a human named Anthony Villiers (aka Viscount Charteris) - light fare but refreshing. ------------------------------ Date: 4 June 1982 10:48 edt From: Gubbins.4506i14TK at RADC-Multics Subject: Macro Story The following is a story story that a good friend of mine wrote. I thought it might fit in well with SF-Lovers. - Gern -------------------------------------------------------- "Rats!", the Moon thought, "My Kepler crater itches!" He hated it when he had an itch. There was no way of relieving it unless a small meteorite would strike the spot. And the chances of that happening were millions to one. The Moon remembered his youth, when he had thought about more than tiny itches. He had been cradled in a lush pocket of spacetime, set in ultimate comfort among the cosmos. He took leisurely strolls around a beautiful blue planet, admiring its grace and purity. Yet something was missing; a purpose, a reason. Was this his ultimate fate, to circle this epitome of beauty? Was his sole purpose to praise and serve this model of perfection? He had certainly hoped not. As time passed,, he grew to hate the blue planet, jealous of the attention it drew and magnificence it possessed. He hated his own mundane looks and meaningless purpose in life. Then they came. Tiny, miniature creatures in white. They hopped around and stuck a bright cloth in him. They danced, they shouted, they frolicked. They sang praises to him! Praises to him? Creatures from the beautiful blue planet singing praises to him, an ugly rock, a mere servant? Maybe he was important. Maybe he had a purpose in life. He was a goal! Something to reach for, something to accomplish. He had found his purpose. Suddenly a tiny asteroid pelted the Moon just inside the Kepler crater. "Ahh!", sighed the Moon, "That hits the spot." And so it did. - Aries ------------------------------ Date: 4 Jun 1982 0931-MDT From: Michi Wada Subject: Dr. Who and Star Trek II premier In the story "The Armaggedon Factor" the Doctor met Drax, a fellow Gallifrian. Drax called the Doctor "Theta Sigma" when they first met. According to the book version of the story "Theta Sigma" is a Gallifrian designation and not the Doctor's real name either. Other than that one instance he has always been just "The Doctor". Albuquerque, New Mexico also had a premier showing of Star Trek II on 3 June '82. This one was sponsored by a radio station here in Albuquerque. Tickets were for free, but were gotten by answering or asking Star Trek trivia questions or being in one of 2 science fiction clubs who got a limited number of tickets for helping out with the promotion. ------------------------------ Date: 4 Jun 1982 0915-MDT From: Pendleton at UTAH-20 (Bob Pendleton) Subject: Star Trek:TWOK premier I attended what has billed as the premier of ST:TWOK last night, Thursday June 3rd, in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was not billed as the world premier, just as the premier. It was part of a promotion by a local radio station and a local furniture dealler. Bye the way, I haven't enjoyed an SF movie so much since the first Star Wars movie. It was classic Star Trek! Bob Pendleton ------------------------------ Date: 4 Jun 1982 08:53 CDT From: Johnston.DLOS at PARC-MAXC Subject: Re: SF-LOVERS Digest V5 #60 No premier on 3 June in Dallas. Rick ------------------------------ Date: "3-JUN-1982 17:30 " From: TSC::COORS::VICKREY Reply-to: "TSC::COORS::VICKREY c/o" Subject: The Wrath of Khan "Somewhere at the ends of the universe a battle is about to begin ..." So begins the radio commercial for TWOK. What a lovely way to wake up in the morning! ------------------------------ Date: 4 Jun 1982 2014-EDT From: HEDRICK at RUTGERS (Mgr DEC-20s/Dir LCSR Comp Facility) Subject: an alarming review of ST.TMP.2 After seeing all the positive reviews that have been published here, I was interested to hear the WCBS movie critic give a fairly negative review of Star Trek II. What was interesting about it was that he criticized the movie by saying that it was just a bunch of people sitting around in swivel chairs. Even that were true (which it is not), I would find it a fairly alarming reaction. Star Wars (which as I recall the same reviewer liked) of course had more different sets and more "action". But these days more and more of the real life challenges are going to occur to people who are sitting at desks or consoles. If we are going to survive as a technological society, we are going to be willing to put effort into challenges that are essentially abstract - ethical issues that we can only see by perusing a list of numbers on a printout, and life and death struggles that show up only on a display screen. I think what we see in that review is the sort of alienation from technology that Pirsig analysed so well in @i[Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance]. [I trust everyone on this mailing list knows about that most extrodinary book. Although it is a work of fiction, it contains interesting discussions of at least the following points: - people's reactions to technology - esthetics - the problem-solving process, with emphasis on debugging. [the only other significant treatment that I know of outside the AI literature is Polyani's book @i[How to Solve it.] It isn't exactly science fiction, but it seems to share many of the merits of science fiction. It is one of the few books that seems to create its own genre. The normal sorts of things you expect to see in a review wouldn't be that useful, because the action is almost completely on the level of ideas. The chief villain is an academic department at the University of Chicago. [Interestingly enough, I believe that the department actually exists. One suspects that the usual disavowal of "no similarity to any people living or dead" is misleading in this case. He minces no words about who his villains are. They are mostly universities, and they are all identifiable.]]] ------------------------------ Date: 4 Jun 1982 0108-PDT From: Jim McGrath Subject: Rating of Poltergeist By ALJEAN HARMETZ c. 1982 N.Y. Times News Service HOLLYWOOD - The voluntary movie-rating system of the Hollywood studios has made news again - in two ways that reflect the tensions inherent in trying to protect children, movie grosses and an uncensored society at the same time. .... On the other side of the ledger, MGM-UA's ''Poltergeist,'' a movie that has a very explicit body count of decaying corpses, was rated R by the industry's Rating Board. Because ''Poltergeist'' - which concerns the ghostly possession of a tract house and its occupants - should find its greatest audience in young teen-agers when it opens Friday, the studio appealed the decision. By a surprisingly lopsided vote, the Appeals Board, which consists of 24 members of organizations of movie producers and distributors and theater owners, overturned the R-rating and granted ''Poltergeist'' a PG-rating. In the last three years, only three of 16 appeals have been granted by the Appeals Board - not counting movies that appealed their ratings because of sexually explicit language that automatically gets a movie an R. The PG-rating for ''Poltergeist'' suggests ''parental guidance'' but allows even a 5-year-old to attend the movie unaccompanied. The ratings system was instituted in 1968 as a way of staving off government censorship. For the last six or eight years, there has been a fierce but almost completely private argument inside the industry over adding an R-13 rating, which would restrict a movie for young children but not for teen-agers. Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, has been very reluctant to draw attention to the ratings by tampering with them in any way, but the rerating of ''Poltergeist'' is bound to force him to address himself to the hot-potato issue once again. .... ------------------------------ Date: 4 Jun 1982 1600-EDT From: DD-B Reply-to: "DYER-BENNET at KL2137 c/o" Subject: SFL submission ( Subject: SF-LOVERS Digest V5 #57 ) (Dolata at SUMEX-AIM) I agree that revenge does not befit a Jedhi. They certainly don't map directly onto the samurai, for example. There are more long books recently, and also more series and sequels and the like. Personally, I like long books and series. I would certainly object if I felt a book were padded, but that's not something I tend to notice (or else my definition of "padded" differs from most peoples'). So be reassured that this trend in writing or publishing at least serves the interests of someone, somewhere, other than those doing it. (Discussions of "standard english") This is more germane to SF than many of our sidetracks here, but I think it's also more unresolvable. Using female pronouns generically in a book told in first person by a female bothers me much less, at least in the abstract (I haven't read Friday yet), than many things I've seen done. ( Subject: SF-LOVERS Digest V5 #59 ) (Steven J. Zeve ) I thought it was pachuperoffspring? ------------------------------ Date: 4 Jun 1982 1328-PDT From: FEBER at USC-ISIC Subject: Pacman The name Pacman apparently comes from the Japanese verb "paku-paku" which is an onomatopoetic word representing the sound the lips make as someone gobbles food. It implies voraciousness. ------------------------------ Date: 26-May-1982 From: JOHN FRANCIS AT EIFFEL Reply-to: "JOHN FRANCIS AT EIFFEL c/o" Subject: Ferrets of Old England In reply to Mijjil's ferret query: I have never heard of "Duck's Breath", but I suspect that your question about the ferrets of England refers to "The Ferrets of Old England", a truly marvelous song. I don't remember much of it - just the following phrase: "Do you like your Ferret baked or boiled?" "No - I preFERRET raw!" "Oh, God bless the Ferrets of Old England". This song is from an old BBC radio series "I'm sorry, I'll read that again" starring David Hatch, Jo Kendall, John (Otto) Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graham Garden, and Bill Oddie (who wrote the songs), and produced by Humphrey Barclay. Ferrets are a recurring theme in this series, as are gibbons, and several other weird things. If you haven't ever heard this series, you are missing a lot of the jokes in the Monty Python TV shows and films. For example, in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", the vampire rabbit is a reference to an ISIRTA show where the wimpy hero (Tim Brooke-Taylor) is trapped in a room with a vampire rabbit and a large wooden chest. "Oh" he dithers, "Should I attempt to kill the creature by driving a pointed stick through it's heart, or should I hide in the chest ?" "What should I do ?" and the audience reply "Stake the Bunny!" "Hop in the Box!" P.S. Referring to the show as ISIRTA is not just SFL-ism in abbreviating everything to it's initials - that's what they called it themselves. ------------------------------ End of SF-LOVERS Digest ***********************