READING

Today I am talking about reading books.  Many novels seem to pose some problem for the protagonist, and the story is mainly about how that problem is solved.  If it is well written, the solution is not at all obvious, and we may be surprised and pleased with the outcome.  These fictional stories are usually set in a society with which we are familiar, or at least find believable.  Sometimes the final result is almost predictable.

However, I am now reading a series of short stories by Robert Heinlein.  He was among the first authors of bestselling, novel-length science fiction, and the short stories I’m now reading are termed ‘fantasies’.  Here the conclusion is by no means obvious as the author introduces other worlds, creatures with mysterious powers, and some rather fantastic gadgetry.  (He tried to attach the Grbtzz to the outside of his Aircar, but even using the power of the Inner World, it kept falling up.  Something was wrong.)  (Or something like that.)  What makes Heinlein’s stories interesting, though, is that he sets them in reasonably recognizable settings so that one is not lost either figuratively or literally in space.  Quite interesting to read something almost entirely outside what I’ve been consuming.

Here is another intriguing item about one of the Heinlein short stories I just finished.  The story is called Waldo, and there is a character named Waldo who invents various remote manipulators called Waldos.  What makes that interesting is that inventors have created various remote manipulators to handle, for example, radioactive materials, and have dubbed them Waldos, after the gadgets in the story.

Cartoon plus --

I signed up for an exercise class and was told to wear loose fitting clothing. If I HAD any loose fitting clothing, I wouldn't have signed up in the first place!

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Note on package for mailing:  FRAGILE- TOSS UNDERHAND.

I called your house the other day and was told you were down at your favorite biker bar with some friends.  I wasn't sure where that was, but was told I wouldn't have much trouble finding it.
Sure enough, I drove just a couple blocks and there it was...