Vol. 5 No. 4 August 2006

ALEXIAD(!7+=3!)) $2.00

I emailed the Saddlebred association about fatal injuries to Saddlebreds. Theyanswered that their horses didn’t break down. I found this hard to believe so I did awebsearch for fatal injuries to Saddlebreds. What popped up were three pages of listingsof the equine version of sprained ankles. Only at the end of the third page of listings didI find the death of a Saddlebred. It was the attack on Wild-Eyed and Wicked and hiscompanions, which certainly cannot be blamed on anything that happened duringcompetition. By comparison, I did a websearch on Thoroughbreds. A whole string offatal injuries popped up. I’m still not sure I believe the Saddlebred claim. I would verymuch like to. What is clear is that Saddlebred competition is much less harmful to thehorses than Thoroughbred racing.

— Lisa

Table of ContentsEditorial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Reviewer’s Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Awards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Horse Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Hugo Picks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Pierre Plantard and the Priory of Sion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Prayers for the Assassin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3The Wind in the Willows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Book ReviewsJTM Armstrong, Preemptive Strike. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6CRC Bujold, Paladin of Souls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12JTM Butler, ed., My Dear Mr. Stalin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8JTM Carey, Kushiel’s Scion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4JCS Hirshfeld, The Electric Life of Michael Faraday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13JTM Lupoff, Master of Adventure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6RD Du Maurier, The Martian. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11JTM Moore, Bad Prince Charlie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3JTM Maund/Nanson, The Four Musketeers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8JTM Novik, Black Powder War. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5JTM Pendle, Strange Angel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9JTM Roberson, Paragaea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5JTM Starks/Murcutt, Lost in Tibet.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6JTM Stross, The Clan Corporate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6JTM Szalavitz, Help at Any Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Candy Bar ReviewsJC Twix White Chocolate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Fanzines Received. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Random Jottings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Letters.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Sheryl Birkhead, Dainis Bisenieks, Jeffrey Allan Boman, Sue Burke, Brad W. Foster, E.B. Frohvet, Alexis A. Gilliland, John Hertz, Robert S. Kennedy, Trinlay Khadro, EvelynC. Leeper, Rodney Leighton, Lloyd Penney, AL du Pisani, George W. Price, JohnPurcell, Darrell Schweitzer, Steven H Silver, Joy V. Smith, Milt Stevens, Janine G.Stinson, Taral Wayne, Taras Wolansky, Martin Morse WoosterComments are by JTM or LTM .

Trivia:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Art:Sheryl Birkhead. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 17Paul Gadzikowski. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Alexis Gilliland.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Trinlay Khadro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2The Dormition of the Theokotos is August 15, 2006.The 81 Running of the Hambletonian (1st leg of theTrotting Triple Crown is August 5,st

2006 at Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, NJThe 114 Running of the Kentucky Futurity (2nd leg of the Trotting Triple Crown) isth

October 7, 2006 at the Red Mile in Lexington, KYThe 52 Running of the Yonkers Trot (3rd leg of the Trotting Triple Crown) isnd

November 25, 2006 at Yonkers Raceway in Yonkers, NYThe 51 Running of the Cane Pace (1st leg of the Pacing Triple Crown) is September 4,st

2006 at Freehold Raceway in Freehold, NJThe 61 Running of the Little Brown Jug (2nd leg of the Pacing Triple Crown) isst

September 21, 2006 at the Delaware County Fair in Delaware, OH.The 50 Running of the Messenger Stakes (3rd leg of the Pacing Triple Crown) isth

November 5, 2006 at Yonkers Raceway.Printed on April 15, 2009Deadline is October 1, 2006

Reviewer’s Notes

“Why don’t teens do zines?”Fanzines began because it was too much trouble to write the same letter a dozen times

to correspondents from Maine to California. As a result, they could write through youinstead. This was when travel was difficult; gasprices were clearly out of hand at 15¢ agallon.

When the country picked up a little, Fans could actually go out of town to meet otherFans. <Pause for 35,751st reiteration of the quarrel over whether Leeds or Philadelphia hadthe first SF convention> Conventions began to grow. And then Fans had to have the otherthings they liked. Not to mention that other forms were far more accessible.

The result is that media cons are vast. Dragon*Con is a company serving 50,000 patronsa year. If it has anything about fanzines — like, d00dz, that’s for the Livejournal chat.

In other words, there is much discussion, but it’s written on the wind and just as well. How to find the good Net discussion amid “Vader could of took Q!” “That sux!” and evenless literate comment.

Family has different meanings. You will recall in My Big Fat Greek Wedding how Toulahad thirty first cousins and knew them all (though admittedly the names repeated), while Ianhad two and barely knew them. Recently we went to Hickman, Kentucky, which is almoston the Mississippi, to see my cousins the Major Brothers Lynn, Mike, and Jim. After a while my and their cousin Kathy showed up. Kathy mentioned that her parents had at first meantto name her “Nancy Katherine Mabry” — my grandmother’s name! But then, like me, likethe Brothers, Kathy had a Major grandparent and a Mabry grandparent.

Lisa couldn’t say a thing. We had just come from the Forrester Reunion in Union City,Tennessee — her maternal grandmother’s family — with nearly a hundred people, and theThomas-Bridges Reunion in Cadiz, Kentucky with over two hundred.

And some people don’t have any family at all.

Page 2 August 2006 Alexiad

RANDOM JOTTINGSby Joe

Life Imitates SF Department: Okay, soI read People magazine. They publishfollow-ups, which other magazines have quitdoing. (For example, Newsweek used to havea “Where Are They Now?” feature.) As ithappened, the June 26, 2006 issue had, withits articles on “Hot Bachelors”, two on peoplewho tried living F&SF. First off, there was aguy who lived in Wal-Mart for almost twodays (Page 133). But that Wal-Mart wasopen round the clock, which makes thesinister plots recounted in John Collier’s“Evening Primrose” (1940) harder to carryoff. This was followed by a story about aman who is still an undergrad after 12 yearsin college (Page 134), no doubt looking forDoorways In the Sand (by Roger Zelazny(1975)).

Let’s see: What is the succession of theSenior Surviving Person in Space?

April 12, 1961 — March 27, 1968Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin Vostok 1 “Cedar” [Êåäð (“Kedr”)]

March 27, 1968 — July 21, 1998Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr.Mercury-Redstone 3 “Freedom 7”

July 21, 1998 — September 20, 2000Gherman Stepanovich TitovVostok 2 “Eagle” [Îð¸ë (“Oryol”)]

September 20, 2000 — present

John Herschel Glenn, Jr.Mercury-Atlas 6 “Friendship 7”

Who will succeed to the position whenGlenn (born July 18, 1921) dies? Well, inorder of flight we have:

Scott Carpenter [Malcolm S. Carpenter]born May 1, 1925Mercury-Atlas 7 “Aurora 7”

Pavel Romanovich Popovichborn October 5, 1930Vostok 4 “Golden Eagle” [Áåðêóò

(“Berkut”)]

Walter Marty “Wally” Schirraborn March 12, 1923Mercury-Atlas 8 “Sigma 7”

Valery Fedorovich Bykovskyborn August 4, 1934Vostok 5 “Hawk” [ßñòðåá (“Yastreb”)]

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkovaborn March 6, 1937Vostok 6 “Seagull” [×àéêà (“Chayka”)]

Konstantin Petrovich Feoktiskovborn February 7, 1926Voskhod 1 “Ruby” [Ðóáèí (“Rubin”)]

Aleksei Arkipovich Leonovborn May 30, 1934Voskhod 2 “Diamond” [Àëì àç

(“Almaz”)]

John Watts Youngborn September 24, 1930Gemini 3 “Molly Brown”

James Alton McDivittborn June 10, 1929Gemini 4

Frank Frederick Borman IIborn March 14, 1928James Arthur Lovell, Jr.born March 25, 1928Gemini 7

Thomas Patten Staffordborn September 17, 1930

Gemini 6A

Neil Alden Armstrongborn August 5, 1930David Randolph Scottborn June 6, 1932Gemini 8

Educational Cartoons Department: TheWall Street Journal for Friday, July 14, 2006,contains this insightful phrase: “Wile E.Coyote also has much to teach about cunning,pathos, hubris and the proper handling ofdynamite”. [“Smart TV” by Bret Stephens]. And as for another topic of discussion, Dorathe Explorer™ doesn’t have a Backpack™from the Acme Corporation, either. Beep-Beep!

Martin Morse Wooster has kindly pointedus to Kathleen McGowan, author of TheExpected One (Touchstone, 2006; ISBN 0-7432-9942-6: $25.95), a novel about the heirof line and last surviving descendant of JesusChrist and Mary Magdalene, who by anamazing coincidence just happens to beKathleen McGowan. Gosh!

She has — she must have — access tosome remarkable genealogical sources. Iwish I could get that, and all I want to do istrace the descendants of Archbishop Maugerand his girlfriend (he was a French cleric andat least she was female and adult).

Those of a mathematical bent should begiven a vector in the direction of TheAnnotated Flatland: A Romance of ManyDimensions by “A. Square” (Edwin A.Abbott), introduction and notes by IanStewart (Perseus Publishing; 1884, 2002;ISBN 0-7382-0541-5; $30.00). One learnsthat the author may have been considered astammerer when giving his full name, whichwas Edwin Abbott Abbott (middle namebeing mother’s maiden name). This classicexplication of dimensions — think visit froma four-spatial-dimensional creature, and howit would look upon you — is now enrichedwith explanations of context and other in-depth discussions.

OBITS

We regret to report the death of JamesPatrick “Jim” Baen, editor and publisher, on June 28, 2006. Born October 22, 1943, Jimcame into the field as editor of Galaxy, insuccession to the undistinguished tenure ofEjler Jakobsson. He revived the magazine fora brief but shining moment, his greatestdiscovery being John Varley.

After leaving Galaxy he became an editorwith Ace Books, where he produced theinnovative if unfortunately unsuccessful“bookazine” Destinies, which continuedunder different titles for some time.

His principal influence, though, was as apublisher. Baen Books, the company hefounded and directed until his death, activelysolicited new science fictional ideas andwriters, bringing many new writers into thefield, a list led by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Baen entered the hospital on June 11because of a drug interaction; he suffered thestroke there and lingered in a coma for twoweeks. He is survived by two daughters.

MONARCHIST NEWS

Michel Roger Lafosse, alias “PrinceMichael of Albany”, has been stripped of hisBritish citizenship, ordered to give up hisBritish passport, and faces deportation andfraud charges. He has fled to Belgium afterputting his house in Edinburgh up for sale. After an investigation, the British HomeOffice concluded that Lafosse obtainedBritish citizenship using a forged birthcertificate. Couldn’t happen to a nicer chap.

The Italian Affair: Crown PrinceVittorio Emanuele of Italy has been arrestedfor providing prostitutes and slot machines toa casino, only a year after being allowed tore-enter Italy. He has resigned his claim infavor of his son, Emanuele Filiberto, Princeof Venice, who has dissociated himself fromhis father’s alleged crimes.. However, theircousin Amadeo, Duke of Aosta has also beennamed “Duke of Savoy” and claimant by abody called Consulta dei senatori del Regno,an organization founded by Umberto II to actas Senate of Italy during the republic.

Alexiad August 2006 Page 3

THE NIGHT OF POWER DIARIESCommentary by Joseph T Major onPRAYERS FOR THE ASSASSIN

by Robert Ferrigno(Scribner; 2006; ISBN 0-7432-7289-7;

$24.95)

Baen Books reissued Spider Robinson’sNight of Power (1985) last year. One can askwhy.

Night of Power is one of a cluster of“Black Revolution” novels, stories about theoppressed African standing and fighting as aman, taking on Whitey and making his owncountry. Other works of this type includeWarren Miller’s The Siege of Harlem (1964),Edwin Corley’s Siege (1969), and FletcherKnebel’s Trespass (1969). The others, youcan see, took off from the black militancy ofthe sixties, which saw the Black Panthers asmore than just a street gang with delusions ofadequacy, and eventually developed to thepoint where it took “Soledad Brother” GeorgeJackson’s Guevaraist fantasies as plausible.

One other work, Robie MacAuley’s ASecret History of Time to Come (1979), hadsuch a rising. It also had said risingexterminated, and in the post-apocalypticphase, there were no blacks surviving inAmerica. It wasn’t so good for the whites,either. (After a promising setup, a searingportrayal of mutual racism, and a nicelybalanced question of reality, the novel boggeddown in a standard quest for the MagicKnickknack of Qwerty and ended up with allthe other characters presumably dyingpointlessly and the point-of-view characterwandering around aimlessly.) Such a bleakaftermath would be far too likely for thatevent.

More like Miller than the others,Robinson seemed to have taken that to heart. He probably wouldn’t appreciate that this isthe same solution, different color, prescribedin The Turner Diaries by “AndrewMacdonald” [William L. Pierce] (1978,1980).

None of these works, however, seemed totake into account foreign powers. Now,normally, given their dates one could becertain that Corley’s “Afro-AmericanLiberation Army” or Robinson’s charismaticconspirator Michael would have had aid fromthe Soviet organs of state security (i.e., theKGB and GRU, the espionage agencies). ButAmerican writers tend to act as if the world

ends at the border (e.g. Thomas T. Thomas’sFirst Citizen (1987), a lame adaptation of thewar between Pompey and Caesar, where theU.S. breaks into chaos and no one else seemsto bother).

All this reduces to an apocalypticportrayal of an America divided byuncrossable boundaries, riven by war. Ofcourse, it needn’t be race that does that . . .

Prayers for the Assassin begins with afootball game breaking for prayers. In thenext few pages, Ferrigno draws a picture ofan America pervaded and dominated byIslam. (For example, the times at whichchapters are set go by the cycle of the dailyprayers.) Not, however, the militant Islam ofthe banlieus of France or the neighborhoodsof Denmark. This is an Americanized Islam,one that allows some of the ways of the Era ofIgnorance to continue for a time.

Ferrigno has described a nightmarishtransition from here to there. It began whendirty nuclear weapons devastated New Yorkand Washington. And Mecca. Theperpetrators were speedily unmasked andconfessed their crimes — they were Israeliagents, and a thorough revulsion against theZionist Entity and all things Jewish followed.

About then, the latest cool religion hit theelites. No more Kabballah of course, no moreScientology, no more Zen or Hari Krishna orGaianism — it was Islam! And when Islambecame the Faith of Faiths among theirreligious elites, it became more generallypopular. It filled the void that sprang upwhen the Walden Church had to quit holdingreligious services because there were toomany self-help meetings and political ralliesusing the church facilities. That new andinclusive faith didn’t look kindly onbacksliding, either.

But there was a new civil war. The stick-in-the-mud Christians resisted, fleeing to theBible Belt and conducting a high-tech waragainst Islam. They weren’t defeated, either,but restrained to the Old South. And so itstands.

Other nations exist in the former USA —a hedonistic country in Nevada, a Mormonland in Utah — and there are wildlands. Butthe majority of the survivors have surrenderedto the faith of faiths.

It’s the details. For example, the casualreferences to continued executions ofhomosexuals in San Francisco. Or thegeneral degradation of the infrastructure.

The plot, by way of contrast, is moreplatitudinous. A sinister conspirator turnedout to have sent very long-term penetrationagents into all the infidel powers of the world. For example, at one point we find himgloating that the new Pope is his man. Andsimilarly, the “Mossad” agents who nuked theU.S. and Mecca were the children of hisagents.

This is cartoonish conspiracism, asrealistic (or unrealistic) as the conspiracy in,say, Night of Power, or Michael F. Flynn’s Inthe Country of the Blind (1990) with its super-secret, super-powerful social manipulatorsusing societal models initially calculated byBabbage engines.

Thrillers often display a degree of actionin covert operations that requires massiveauctorial intervention to be feasible. Thelegendary and fabulous Soviet ultra-deep-penetration agents, trained at that gargantuanreservation Somewhere in the Red Empirethat was as good a simulation as they couldmake of a good old American apple-pie smalltown, don’t seem to have popped up now thatthe Soviet Union is a back number and there’sbig money to be made in scandalous old ColdWar revelations. Maybe there never weresuch people; and so much for the villain’svery long-term penetration agents.

The earlier similar work that comes tomind is Mike McQuay’s Jitterbug (1997),where the al-Saud have taken control of andIslamicized the world by deploying biologicalweapons in every major city and depopulatingmost of the countryside. How well this wouldwork is another matter, and how they wouldkeep the Wahabi mullahs from denouncing,for example, the surgically modified pleasurewomen of that story, is another matter, but itdoes at least give an example of thedegradation entailed in such a conquest.

As has been pointed out, given theadvance of Eurabia, it makes less sense tohave this novel set in America per se, but onehas to consider the market.

Science Fiction is often stuck on oldtropes. Those looking for the trappings of“Arabian Nights” fiction — the wise oldSultan without a son, whose spunky daughtergoes to the bazaar to meet a handsome andvaliant but poor young man, the wickedGrand Vizer plotting to marry the princessand take power (or the virtuous Jewish Vizerwho counsels the handsome and valiant butpoor young man), the wise old philosopher of

the market, the cheery fat old trader-woman,the cunning chief of the thieves’ guild, thebeautiful fair-haired belly-dancers in flimsycostumes, the spunky young thief-girl, theruggedly handsome clean-shaven youngsheikh in artfully ripped shirt revealingartfully ripped pecs who ravishes away thebeautiful Christian woman in long flowinggown with long flowing hair, their two heartsbeating as one — will have to go begging. Prayers for the Assassin is hardly as cutting-edge as it could be — presenting the cultureof the madrassas and mullahs that would farmore likely be the result of this Islamizationof America would result in an unsalablemanuscript — but it does put before thereader an uncomfortable dash of reality.

Back in the fifties, someone who qualifiedas an expert on Communism, having seen itfrom the inside, had a few meetings withJoseph McCarthy, but soon gave up on him. McCarthy adhered to a common Americanperception; he portrayed the InternationalCommunist Conspiracy as an organization ofwicked men, led by the sinister Boss, Stalin,with a hierarchy of obedient fiendishsupporters.

His would-be teacher saw it differently. Communism was an idea, an idea that offeredmuch to the oppressed, an idea that had anevil at its core. The Senator would not,perhaps could not, comprehend this concept. Which was why Whittaker Chambers, moreperceptive than most, feared McCarthy insome ways even more than the people ofProgressive America did. He knew better.

If Prayers for the Assassin encouragesreaders to think of Islamism as an idea, thatwill be one thing. If it encourages them tolook out for the conspiracy, to think of it asonly a group of evil men, then . . .

COUP-COUPReview by Joseph T Major of

BAD PRINCE CHARLIEby John Moore

(Ace; 2006; ISBN 0-441-01396-1; $6.99)

The imaginative epics of the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries were killed off by onework, albeit a masterpiece: El ingeniosohidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (1605,1615) por, er by Miguel de Cervantes ySaavedra.

Nowadays, there is an entire genre ofgenre-killing books; these include such worksas Jack L. Chalker’s Dancing Gods series

Page 4 August 2006 Alexiad

[The River of the Dancing Gods (1984),Demons of the Dancing Gods (1984),Vengeance of the Dancing Gods (1985),Songs of the Dancing Gods (1990), andHorrors of the Dancing Gods (1995)], CraigShaw Gardner’s trilogies about the greedywizard Ebenezum [A Malady of Magicks(1986), A Multitude of Monsters (1986), andA Night in the Netherhells (1987)] and hisnaive but lucky apprentice Wuntvor [ADifficulty with Dwarves (1987), An Excess ofEnchantments (1988), and A Disagreementwith Death (1989)], Diana Wynne Jones’sDerkholm books [Dark Lord of Derkholm(1998) and Year of the Griffin (2000)], and soon. Indeed, there is a guide to writing suchstuff: Jones’s The Tough Guide toFantasyland (1996).

Most of these works take one of the genreattitudes one step further as it were; thecharacters in most processed fantasy react asmodern people would, so what these writersdo is to have their characters act like cynicalslackers who have read a lot of processedfantasy. Some ungracious types might wellsay that this is a self-portrait.

John Moore’s Heroics for Beginners(2004) was another in these works. This oneis yet another such work, and one can tell thatMoore is taking the attitude pretty far:

“The plague?” said Terrapin. “Excuse my interruption, but whenyou speak of the plague, are youtalking about . . . surely you don’tmean . . .”

“Yes,” said Charlie. “Coffeeshops.”

The thief made a noise of disgust. “Coffee shops. They seemed to comeout of nowhere, and now Noile isinfected with them. And the prices. Ten pence for a tall macchiato! It’sridiculous. It’s . . .”

“Highway robbery, Dick?”— Bad Prince Charlie, Page 13

The titular “Bad Prince Charlie” isinvolved in one of those postmodernintrigues. It seems the kingdom is definitelynot a going concern (Moore has a remarkablyintricate reason for this, though one wondersof the people involved would be capable ofsuch detailed climatic studies) and their onlyhope is a successful takeover by a foreignpower. To do this, the would-be conquerorshave to have a plausible pretext, say gross

misgovernance. This is where Charlie, thenatural son and only child of the late king,comes in; he can be (mis)governor of therealm until the People Rise In Their Wrathand throw him out, whereupon kindlyneighbors will step in and save the day. Wehaven’t seen such delicacy of conspiring sinceTaylor Caldwell’s The Devil’s Advocate(1952).

However, once installed, Charlie finds thatthe problems of acting the Wicked Tyrantrequire certain concessions to the real world. Such as actually rooting out corruption, whichfollows from arresting the Loyal Ministers ofthe Last Regime. Also, there are othermanagement problems. And he’s supposed tooppress his bride-to-be (forced of course)Lady Catherine, only he seems to be actuallyfalling for her. And did I mention his father’sghost, hanging around the castle?

With all these problems, Charlie decidesto look into sorcery, and what it has to dowith that odd, useless network of deep roadsall over the water-short kingdom. Therereally are WMD (Weapons of MagicalDestruction) out there, you know, and he hasto look for those also. When not beingdistracted by a beautiful dancer from aforeign dance troupe, that is. Or she is. (Moore isn’t that modern, really.)

In other words, he’s not doing his duty asthe Evil Overlord. Which leads to moreproblems. . . . Moore has created a funnyapplication of realism to the clichés of genrefantasy.

(The lost Shakespearean play “Cardenio”,first performed in 1613, is known to havebeen based on Don Quijote. Can anyOxfordian kindly tell me how a man who diedin 1604 could write a play based on a bookthat came out in 1605?)

FAMILY FAVORITESReview by Joseph T Major of

KUSHIEL’S SCIONby Jacqueline Carey

(Warner Books; 2006;ISBN 978-0-446-50002-9; $26.95)

Sequel to Kushiel’s Dart (2001), Kushiel’sChosen (2002), and Kushiel’s Avatar (2003)

. . . stripped, kneeling, head down,eyes lowered, dark hair tied, in a knot,of some complexity, to keep her hair,from brushing her shoulders, thewoman Phèdre, the ambassador, of the

queen Ysandre, of Terre d’Ange, sent,by her, to speak with me, Bosk of PortKar, who was once, on another world,in another time, known by quite adifferent name, was at my feet; Iobserved her, closely, minutely,noting, on her back, a most intricatemarking; of delicate shades of color,and complex intertwinings of lines,this was said, to be the sign, of herprofession, indicating a woman, ofgreat passion, who might be taken, byany man, as worship, of her god; thissign, of her profession, was inked, byneedles, into her pale skin, which wasas soft, as the fabrics, of Gor, as usedfor slave silk, such as women, such asthe one before me, would wear, whenserving men.

“You will serve me,” I said.“As the lord wishes.”“You will dance.”“As the lord wishes.”“You will dance naked.”“As the lord wishes.”“Naked in chains.”“As the lord wishes.”“In chains, to the kiss of the whip.”“As the lord wishes.”

Phèdre thought as she put out herhands for the manacles, Holy Elua,spare me this man’s fumblings, if hisacts are as dull as his words.

— Not by “John Norman” [John FrederickLange] or Jacqueline Carey

All the same, perhaps Phèdre nó Delaunayde Montrève would have preferred servicingTarl Cabot instead of having to penetrate thewilds of Daršanga to rescue Imriel de laCourcel. Imriel, you see, being in line for thethrone of Terre d’Ange, and the son of thetraitorous Melisende de la Courcel to boot. Melisende, having perhaps somehow read laHistoire d’O , had once had Phèdre attend herat an entertainment wearing only a collar, ona leash. But all that was in the previousbooks.

Imriel is alive, in spite of everything theMakargir could do to him, and Phèdre andJosceline didn’t even have to say they werelooking for armes de destruction de masse.

The first part of the book is Imriel’scoming-of-age. He has the expectedproblems of one who is in line for a contested

throne. Queen Ysandre did not take theexpected course of having him executed;neither did Imriel do the right thing and ask toreceive the sharp edge of The King’s Justice(1985) as the Gwynedd princeling did afterhis relatives failed in their revolt against KingKelson.

Rather, Imriel ended up being fostered inPhèdre’s household. Presumably she couldkeep him safe from any discontented factionslooking to foment an usurpation. We seeImriel going through that troubled periodwhen one is not quite a man, yet no longer aboy.

It’s very counter-culture that Imriel has afather-figure to hand, Phèdre’s lover andcompanion Joscelin. Who is a very goodfather-figure, particularly when it comes togetting Imriel out of fights. Or training himhow to win them.

And as for the other matter, Phèdre tendsto that too. Not personally, Blessed Elua bepraised; there are some things even she won’tdo and being a Maureen Johnson Smith figureis one of them. (It would be interesting to seethe mutual disgust should the dimension-travelling Lazarus Long ever meet this holypro bottom.) In this land of BSDM, whereThe Story of O seems to be a religious fable,somehow simple ordinary physical love witha hierodule seems practically naïve andtouching.

There is of course the matter of thesuccessions. Queen Ysandre is married toDrustan the Cruarch of Alba, that cold andrainy kingdom across the Channel. About theonly saving grace of the marital alliance isthat the two realms have different rules ofinheritance. Wouldn’t it be a good idea ifImriel married Drustan’s niece Dorelei? Itwould get him out of the way and thesuccession secured. Oh, and did I mentionthat Imriel’s treacherous mother, Melisende,has vanished from the convent where shelaired up? Everyone is worried.

Even though there are no plots to hand,Imriel figures he had better get out of thecountry, and everyone else seems agreeable. So he relocates to the city on the Tiber, whichoddly enough is named Tiberium. Which hasa Senate, a Princeps, and other appurtenancesof a culture that on other time-lines was ratherbroader in scope and narrower in time. Imrielmanages quite well there.

I said culture, as when Imriel meetsClaudia Fulvia, wife of an important senator,he finds out that “adultery” is not Tiberian.

Alexiad August 2006 Page 5

The word, that is, the act is very much so. Here, HBO’s series Rome would be theirDallas.

Claudia Fulvia isn’t doing it for a fling. Well, not entirely. It seems she is a memberof a conspiracy so immense. . . well, a vastconspiracy . . . whatever, a secret society, theUnseen Guild (how can Pratchett fans resistwondering if they are trained at UnseenUniversity?), that is working to train people atthe art of covertcy. Since Phèdre instructedImriel in that, it seems to be his lucky day. Or maybe not, since Phèdre’s teacher Anafielbroke with the Unseen Guild, and as he learnsmore context, Imriel becomes inclined tothink that he had done the right thing.

All this makes getting out of town a goodidea. Which Imriel does, going from thePrincipate to the Renaissance. Theprincipality of Lucca is spared the burden ofbeing the savior of society in the period ofp ierced equilibrium leading to theResponsible Man, under the guard ofromantic reliab le reasonably p ricedmercenaries from a city-state trained up inarms by a one-legged man . . . GordonDickson had a bit too much romance in histheory of the Childe Cycle.

Instead, Lucca is faced with an assault bya band of mercenaries, who are about onelevel above a gang of bandits, in the hire of amad neighboring nobleman, who is reallymad after Imriel cuts his hand off during acounter-ambush. (When Imriel says “Unhandthat damsel!” — she’s certainly not a maiden,not after her captor’s night of passion withher — he really means it.)

Lucca may not appreciate its rescuer, theyoung heir to the principality, Imriel’s fellowstudent Lucius Tadius. You see, Lucius hasbecome possessed by the ghost of his great-grandfather, the greater sire of lesser scions. At least he now has the military skills theyneed.

All which comes to a climax in which oneof the lesser elements is sending a flood toHell . . .

While Carey could be commended highlyfor wandering out of familiar territory withBanewreaker (2004) and Godslayer (2005),it’s really not a good idea to rewrite theQuenta Silmarillion with Morgoth as thegood guy. But she has avoided the oppositetack of making the second series a rerun ofthe first one, only with an even badder badguy who just didn’t want to get involved the

first time, but this time it’s personal. Lifegoes on in Terre d’Ange — for everyone,good and bad, as we will see when the tale ofImriel is . . . [To Be Continued]

THE RIGHT STUFFSReview by Joseph T Major of

PARAGAEA: A Planetary Romanceby Chris Roberson

(Pyr; 2006; ISBN 1-59102-440-7; $15.00)

Writers who plan to tell in many volumesthe story of a family with many exotic andeccentric members tend to end up getting sointrigued with the intricacy of the concept thatthey quit paying attention to such trivia asplot, character, plausibility, story, style, andthe like. This ruined the later works ofHeinlein and of Farmer, and it’s notsurprising that lesser writers such as NealStephenson should end up having gross lapsesin plot and background in such works asCryptonomicon (1999) and its prequels. Iblame it all on Caleb Catlum’s America(1936) myself.

It’s probably a good thing then that thestirring announcement of the many volumesof chronicles of the Bonaventure clan that areforthcoming comes at the end of this book. And this tale begins, not in Jake Burroughs’svacation shack or Lord Grandrith’s Kenyanestate or Qwilghm or anyplace like that, but atTyuratam. Akilina Mikhailovna Chirikova isready to be shot into space in the final flightof the Vostok series. Her return to SovietUnion turns out to be just a little delayed,though . . .

The Judica-Cordiglia brothers of Italyfound all sorts of lost cosmonauts, though forsome curious reason the now-availablearchives of the Soviet space program havesingularly failed to confirm their revelationsin any particular. Akilina Mikhailovnabecomes qualified to be a real lost cosmonaut,painted out of group shots with ChiefDesigner in way that, for example,u n f o r t u n a t e Va l e n t i n Va s i l i y e v i c hBondarenko or drunken Grigory GrigoryevichNelyubov were.

Akilina should have read more pulpadventure, though Burroughs must have beenin ideological trouble in the SocialistMotherland for his use of feudal andbourgeois exploiters of the African,Barsoomian, Amtorian, etc. proletariats, notto mention how Lord Greystoke disposed ofan Honored Chekist . . . yes, the world of

Paragaea seems designed for adventure, witha multitude of intelligent races sort of co-existing, exotic, if not fantastic, and diversetechnology (swordfights on airships, wo!),ancient knowledge of immense power, andthe like.

Fortunately, after Akilina jumps from hercapsule once it fell through the Gate toParagaea, she found someone who spokeEnglish. Most of the locals would havespoken some useful other language, but then,Hieronymus Bonaventure, R.N. wasn’texactly a local himself. (He was a relative ofthe time-travelling lass of Here, There, andEverywhere (2005; reviewed in Alexiad V. 4#6), as said, but more on that problemelsewhere.) He too had been plucked fromhis natural environment, doing his bit in thegreat fight against Bonaparte and then oneday in the South Seas . . .

The rest of the story has to do with theunusual circumstances that make possibleAkilina’s return to our mundane world. Thisentails a lot of fighting, traveling (this meanswalking a fine line between boring the readerwith dull nothing days and sloughing overimmense efforts, which Roberson manages),and learning.

Also catching a cyclically reborn semi-divinity at just the right moment . . .

The story is amusing, if light, andRoberson is to be commended for hisattention to the realities of the humancondition in some usually unconsideredparticulars. Dos vedanya, ZinoviaGieronymusovna Chirikova . . .

In Here, There, and Everywhere,Roberson showed an acquaintance with thebroad topics of SF; he could combine themwell, but did not seem to have much of apoint to it all. Here, at least, the point is thatthe “adventure” appears to the unknowingworld to be a fake, the hero (heroine) returnsto the real world and no one believes her tale. Only, this time, she has some real proof.

Roberson has the basic ideas down patand is developing an appreciation of theirportrayal. It would be very nice to read somemore straightforward adventure from him. However, he obtained one other idea in thecourse of his work which is not going to do itso well.

Evidently Akilina had the same problemtransliterating the name of her daughter“Sinovia” that Israel Azimov did with theirlast name when he, his wife, and their little

boy Izaak left the Motherland, or perhapsAkilina didn’t want to send a “Zinovia Letter”to her lover’s family in England for somereason. So to some extent his problem of“not doing anything with all this” works outhere.

You’d think Akilina would have mournedthe Chief Designer Sergei Pavlovich Korolev,who died during the time between her flightand her return from Paragaea to Earth.

WARS ARE NOT WON BYEVACUATIONS

Review by Joseph T Major ofBLACK POWDER WAR

by Naomi Novik(Del Rey; 2006; ISBN 0-345-48130-5;

$7.50)Sequel to His Majesty’s Dragon (2006) and

Throne of Jade (2006),reviewed in Alexiad V. 5 #3

It was the old Brigadier who wastalking in the café:

Have I told you of what came topass at the siege of Dantzig? No? You must know, then, that after myheroic endeavours in the Austriancampaign, I had come to the notice ofthe Corps of Dragons. It was withgreat regret that I left the Hussars ofBercheny, for I had gained some smallreputation there, but an officer mustgo where he is ordered.

After my part in the great battle atIéna, and the taking of three fortressesstuffed with Prussians, I had thoughtmy brave dragon Violette and I couldrest. But the Marshal Lefevbre hadasked for me by name . . .

— Not by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or NaomiNovik

At the end of Throne of Jade, CaptainLaurence of the Fleet Air Arm, er the Corpsof Dragons, had achieved some kind ofbalance of dragons with the huang-ti and hiscourt. But there was more to come, and sureenough, this story begins with their desperatesummons to Konstantinye. It seems that theTurk has consented to sell three dragon eggsto the infidel king, fire-breathing dragonsmoreover; a commodity a little short inBlighty this past three hundred or so years. But it does appear to be more than a little oddthat they must send this dragon, who is out allthe way in China.

Page 6 August 2006 Alexiad

Especially when a fire disablesTemeraire’s aircraft er dragon carrier. Thisleaves them with but one recourse, to flydown the Silk Route to the Ottomandominions. (Why they don’t pass throughTong-king and Siam to the East IndiaCompany’s lands, and then through Persia tothe Ottoman empire is a good question.)

After suffering through the horrors oftravel in Turkmenistan, Laurence, Temeraire,and their crew find some small problems inthe Ottoman capital. Like, the Britishambassador has died and the money sent topay for the dragons has disappeared. Oh, andthe feral dragons who took up with Temerairefor a bit caused a little problem with theSultan’s herd of cattle.

So they get locked up. In spite of thissome of the men figure out how to get intoreal trouble, that is, by trying to sneak into theSultan’s harim. This ain’t Hope & Crosbymovies, chaps! Tension is continuing to rise.

Particularly after Laurence finally decidesto get the eggs anyhow. It seems the Sultandid get the money and is holding on to it, orso the banker who handled the transfer, andhis daughter, report. (I’m a bit surprised thatLaurence didn’t turn out to be an anti-Semite,but he seems to have more sense.) Thus, theydecide to take what H.M.G. paid for, whichjust might cause problems.

Such as where they get into after escaping. You see, it’s 1806, and Boney is taking afterthe Prussians. Temeraire and crew manage tolink up with the Prussian army and get a first-hand view of the battle of Jena. Also,beforehand, a certain gunner from Corsicadoing a reccy — Napoleon finally got hisdragon. And worse yet, Laurence can’t evendo anything about it.

Dragons can’t turn the tide of the Prussiandebacle, and the only safe place for theEnglish is in Danzig. Yes, they may die forDanzig. Or perhaps not, as the Navy’s here— if they can only get by the fire-breathingnight-flying dragon. As the man said, warsare not won by evacuations . . .

Novik continues to describe well Regencysociety and technology with that added layerof dragons; as I’ve said, the Jonathan Strange& Mr Norell (2004) problem still applies. Inthis story, of course, there is the little matterof Dragon Emancipation — I say, theyhaven’t even done that for bloody papists! But people who like Richard Russ will likethis, and will be pleased to learn that the story

of Laurence, Temeraire, and the rest is . . .[To Be Continued]

LEGAL NEWSReview by Joseph T Major ofTHE CLAN CORPORATE

by Charles Stross(Tor; 2006; ISBN 0-765-30930-0; $24.95)

“Book Three of The Merchant Princes”Sequel to The Family Trade (2005;

reviewed in Alexiad V. 4 #2)and The Hidden Family (2005; reviewed in

Alexiad V. 4 #5)

When we left Miriam, she had justbecome no better off than her relatives; theyhaving learned that there was a third time-lineas well as the one where they were in with thepowers that be and the one where theysmuggled dope to buy luxuries. Whileeveryone else was watching The Sopranos,Miriam had been reading Lest Darkness Fall,and was trying to kickstart the third time lineso as to lessen the Clan’s dependence oncocaine and heroin.

However, law enforcement has its way inthe other timelines. In ours, a specialinteragency task force is mobilized to dealwith this unusual situation. In the thirdtimeline, the security cracks down. And inthe Clan’s timeline, the problem of getting thetimeline-travelling gene into play in the royalline comes up.

You see, the crown prince’s youngerbrother has the potential. But he has to havea wife who has the potential, or the ability, fortheir children to have the ability. Add to thisthat he was brain-damaged as an infant and .. . Miriam has a very unhappy forcedmarriage to look forward to, and she isn’tlooking forward to it.

However revolution seems to be acommonplace, and trouble is universal. Allwhich leaves Miriam in peril no matter whereshe goes and which will be even worse whenthis is . . . [To Be Continued]

ELMO OF THE APESReview by Joseph T Major ofMASTER OF ADVENTURE:

The Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughsby Richard A. Lupoff

with an essay by Phillip R. Burger(Bison Books/University of Nebraska Press;

2005; ISBN 0-8032-8030-0; $16.95)Revision and updating of Edgar Rice

Burroughs: Master of Adventure (1965;

1968)

Lupoff knew something was wrong whenhe attended a Burroughs conference here inLouisville back in ‘ninety-four and foundhimself being besieged by copies of EdgarRice Burroughs: Master of Adventure beingproffered for autographing. Little had beendone in the commentary & criticismdepartment of Burroughs’s fiction since hehad produced that book.

Now, the University of Nebraska Presshas added this classic work to its line offamous pulp fiction; not only added it, butbrought it up to date.

The old reader, such as I, will rememberLupoff’s avid discussion of the genesis of thestory of the man whom we shall call JohnClayton, Lord Greystoke, and his son andheir, White Skin, er Tarzan. Lupoff mentionsthe background works that provided thewherewithal for this work, for “Under theMoons of Mars”, and the other famedproductions of his pen and typer.

Lupoff does not hesitate to makejudgments, as when he refers to the dismalseries of Tarzan novels which featured theguy, the girl, the two quarreling cities, thelustful king who wanted the girl, the seductivequeen who wanted Tarzan, and Tarzan (sansfamily), as mining out of a very familiar vein. He does, however, like the politics of one ofthem, namely Tarzan Triumphant (1931),such as the scene where “Stalin, dictator ofRed Russia” personally sends off an assassinto do a wet affair on Lord Greystoke (Pagexxxiv). If the updating had been morethorough it would have mentioned the similarexperience of Pavel A. Sudoplatov (SpecialTasks, Pages 21-22).

In the introduction to this issue, Lupoffexplains that he can’t bring himself to do allthe updating. This is why the final (long)chapter is by Philip R. Burger, a consultant toEdgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. Burger updatesthe story, so to speak, with comments on thelast few unpublished Burroughs works thatcame out, the new Tarzan works by Joe R.Lansdale, R. A. Salvator, and (no doubt to hisown immense satisfaction) Philip JoséFarmer, and the various adaptations ofvarious sorts. Most of these don’t quite liveup to their potential, or at least the potential asseen by ERB devotees. (Such as the oneswho, stuck by trademark restrictions on“Tarzan”, write fan fiction about “Elmo of theApes, Lord of the Jungle”, in honor of Elmo

Lincoln, the first actor to play you-know-who.)

Burger could touch more on Farmer’simposition of his own concepts onBurroughs’s works. This is a problem thatdetracts from the products of writers “playingin another writer’s universe”, completinganother writer’s unfinished stories, continuingthe saga of the late beloved writer, and thelike.

Master of Adventure is a needed updatingand polishing of a useful and entertainingwork of reference and just plain fun reading. I have spoken.

THE CHINA SYNDROMEReview by Joseph T Major of

PREEMPTIVE STRIKE:The Secret Plan That Would Have

Prevented the Attack on Pearl Harborby Alan Armstrong

(The Lyons Press; 2006;ISBN 1-59228-913-4; $22.95) and

LOST IN TIBET:The Untold Story of Five American

Airmen, a Doomed Plane, and the Will toSurvive

by Richard Starks and Miriam Murcutt(The Lyons Press; 2004, 2005;ISBN 1-59228-785-9; $14.95)

At noon, all across the country,whistles blew and everyone stopped. The speech was broadcast on everyradio channel and repeated onloudspeakers. Everyone heard theunfamiliar voice speaking in anantiquated dialect, saying:

“To O ur Good and Loyal Subjects:Yesterday, the seventh day of the twelfthmonth of the sixteenth year of Showa — adate which will live in infamy — TheEmpire of Japan was suddenly anddeliberately attacked by air units of theUnited States of America. W e were atpeace with that nation, and at thesolicitation of America, were still inconversation with its government and itsp r e s i d e n t l o o k i n g t o w a r d s t h emaintenance of peace in East Asia.

“Indeed, one hour after American airsquadrons had comm enced bombing inO ur port of Hiroshima, the Americanambassador to Japan delivered to OurForeign Minister a formal reply to a recentmessage of Our government. And thisreply contained no threat or hint of war or

Alexiad August 2006 Page 7

of armed attack.“It will be recorded that the distance

of O ur Empire from A m erica makes itobvious that the attack was deliberatelyplanned many days or even weeks ago. D u rin g th e in t e rv e n in g t im e , th eAmerican government has deliberatelysought to deceive Us by false statementsand expressions of hope for continuedpeace.

“The attack yesterday on Hiroshimahas caused severe damage to O ur navaland military forces. W e regret to tell youthat very many Japanese lives have beenlost. In addition, O ur ships have beenreported torpedoed on the high seasbetween Nagasaki and Shanghai . . .”

The American relationship with China hasbeen a curious one. The country has beenseen as a vast market waiting to be tapped,from selling every one of a billion Chineseone shoe each, all the way up to saving alltheir souls.

The Japanese relationship with China wasalso curious. On the one hand, the Japanesesaw China as the fount of all culture andknowledge; on the other, they saw it as theirsphere of influence, exclusive market, andindeed colonial dependency.

As a result, there was a great wave ofgood feeling in America towards Brave LittleChina, being ground beneath the Japaneseiron heel. Which attitude the Japanese tookevery care to promote and encourage, whatwith assaults, atrocities, cruelties, andmassacres, and they weren’t all that nice tothe Chinese, either.

Technology had made vast developmentswithin living memory. It looked as if ahandful of bombing aircraft could bring agreat and powerful nation to its knees, if youbelieved World War Ace Alexander P. deSeversky (see Victory Through Air Power(1942) and its Disney adaptation). Or ClaireChennault.

This is the story of Chennault’s efforts toobtain a mercenary air force for China so itcould launch a Preemptive Strike againstJapan. It does not deal with the actual combatoperations of the American Volunteer Group,the “Flying Tigers”, the only unit actuallyformed as a result of his efforts, though itdoes describe the recruitment and assembly ofthe unit.

Armstrong discusses more the plans ofthen only Captain Chennault. Among his

more grandiose ones were the hopes for thecrippling of Japan by bombing raids fromChina.

But this required the cooperation ofChina, which tended to be problematic. It isa sign of the confusion and disorder in theChinese government that their chief air expertwas Song Meiling — that is, May-lingSoong, Mme. Chiang Kai-shek, the “DragonLady” And indeed she probably knew asmuch about air power as anyone in theChinese government, and was as skilled atadministration as any other potential aircommander. Which was one of the problems;the Kuomintang government was noted forintrigue, deceit, and misadministration.

Now in the U.S. . . . Armstrong cites onesignificant source, the personal diaries ofHenry Morgenthau. It seems that the U.S.government was taking a very liberalapproach to defining “all aid short of war”when dealing with China.

One of the people involved in theplanning may have had an additional agenda,albeit one that corresponded with theAdministration’s. State Department officialLauchlin Currie was one of the more vigoroussupporters of the Chennault proposal. That’sLauchlin Currie as in Agent PAGE — one ofthe NKVD’s boys. Was he helping toadvance the inevitable outcome of history byembroiling the capitalist powers in moreconflict?

Armstrong discusses various sources ofaircraft, including Lend-Lease planes that theBritish really didn’t need just yet, the B-17sin the Philippines, and so on. All these hadthe problem of actually getting there. Oncethey got there, other problems arose. Therewas the matter of internal disorder in China,understand.

The crisis was running faster than anyonehad thought, and indeed many of the suppliesintended for the American Volunteer Groupwere unwillingly redirected. The warabruptly expanded, you see.

The prospects of “bringing down Japaneseaggression” with a surgical strike from BraveLittle China were far more virtual than real. When such bombing raids finally were madefrom China, the response of the Japanese wasto capture the airfields from which they hadbeen launched. And this was in 1944, whenthey had other calls on their military.

Domestically, the prospects of oppositionwere not all that great. There was agroundswell of support in America for China

against Japanese aggression and human rightsviolations, and the administration did workwithin the framework of existing laws, ifsomewhat aggressively interpreting them.

Chennault had proposed bombing Tokyo,which given the position at that time couldhave been done by B-17s with lighter bombloads and more fuel, or other cities insouthern Japan. Such as the naval base insouthern Honshu — Hiroshima. WithAmerican pilots (even in the Chinesemilitary) flying American planes (even withChinese insignia), it’s hard to think, however,that this would be considered anything but anAmerican attack.

Much of this can be described as intensiveinvestigation into an unimportant part of avaster set of circumstances. These findingsare likely to be taken out of context and usedto advance a political agenda, too. Suchagendas are skewed so as to deny any othergroup or nation the power of choice, ofplanning, of action, of intent; all actions beingthe result of the scheming of the wickedgovernment. Oddly enough, these selfsamepeople will virtuously disparage racism andethnocentrism, ascribing those attitudes totheir opponents, never never to themselves. They call that “projection”.

One wonders why China would not beentitled to defend itself against a particularlycruel invasion, and why the United Statesshould be required to consent to the Japanese“Imperial Way”.

Armstrong, a lawyer and a pilot, hasprovided an interesting new perspective onthe events of the Greater East Asia War.

The effort to implement Chennault’s planshad some very stressful results. The Japaneseoffensives had made the position in Chinaunsuppliable except by air. The grandpredictions of Victory Through Air Powerwere found to have so me shakyunderpinnings. (Did de Seversky ever — forexample — address the shortcomings of airsupply shown by the efforts to supplyStalingrad?) Many lives were lost in thiseffort, and others came closer to that thanthey would have liked.

In November 1943, an American C-87transport plane — a converted B-24“Liberator” bomber — flying from China toIndia, across the “Hump”, was blown offcourse, ran out of fuel, and crashed. Thepassengers and crew, five U.S. Army AirForce men, after baling out all survived

unharmed, and reached India by the end ofthe year — on Christmas Eve, as a matter offact.

Now in fact this is not an altogethernoteworthy story as so presented. There isn’tmuch in the way of survival in the teeth ofadversity. The usual tropes of suchadventures — the survival gear being lost,discarded, or useless, improvising weaponsfrom scraps, desperately signaling a searchplane and being ignored, having to decidewhether to eat one survivor, and so on — aresingularly lacking. Indeed, all the fliers foundhelpful and indeed friendly natives themorning after they bailed out, and werereunited that same day.

The problem, see, was that they had notlanded in China; they were Lost in Tibet.

This isn’t a story of man against nature, inother words. Their problem was one entirelybeyond their control; one showing thecontrast between peoples and governments. The flyers were prepared to land in China;they had everything from leaflets to jacketpatches showing them as friends of theRepublic of China. However, China was notthe most popular nation in Tibet at that time,you see.

The relations between Tibet and Chinahad been a source of great strife for years. For example, in A.D. 797 (the thirteenth yearof the Chen yüan [Pinyin: Zhenuan] era of theTe Tsung [Pinyin: De Zong] emperor),Trisong Detsen, the king of Tibet, occupiedChang-an, the capital of China under thethen-reigning T’ang Dynasty. (This wasabout a century after Judge Dee [Ti Jen-Chieh(Pinyin: Di Renjie)], the real-life basis ofRobert van Gulik’s detective novels ). Sincethen there had been ups and downs but ingeneral there was little love lost between thetwo countries.

The pilots and crew made it to Lhasa. Butthere, they found themselves tied up in knotsover the debate about policy towards Tibet. The Nationalist Chinese government hoped totake over, when they had the resourcesavailable. The British were pulling out in awhile, so didn’t care. The Americans weremaking the world safe for little countries. (Remember, the first CIA officer killed wastrying to cross into Tibet.) The Tibetanswanted everyone to keep off. While the fiveAmericans were learning about a newcountry, political controversy determinedtheir fate.

But in the end, they just packed up and

Page 8 August 2006 Alexiad

left. One was killed in the war; the fourothers passed on at various intervals, the lastin 1998. Their stories were recounted by theirfamilies. What this book does is to give apicture of Tibetan life as it was not longbefore it was devastated by “liberation”.

. . . It would have been easy, Crozierthought, to have taken a superior viewof the Tibetans. They were raggedand dirty, ignorant and unworldly, soit was tempting to see them as littlemore than overgrown children. Butthe Tibetans had qualities that Crozierhad come to admire . . . The Tibetanshe had met, with rare exception, hadbeen generous and kind. They mayhave lived in an unforgiving land —and lacked even the most basic ofamenities — but they had managed tocreate a society that was based, in part,on shared acceptance. There was littledissension, and seemingly no envy. Tibet was certainly unfair. It was alsosubject to abuse and corruption. Butsomehow it seemed to work.

— Lost in Tibet, Page 164

I CAN PERSUADE HIMReview by Joseph T Major of

MY DEAR MR. STALIN:The Complete Correspondence of Franklin

D. Roosevelt and Joseph V. StalinEdited, with commentary, by Susan Butler

Foreword by Arthur Schleshinger, Jr.(Yale University Press; 2005;

ISBN 0-300-10854-0)

One can imagine how this book wouldhave been received had it been published halfa century ago. Thousands of retired officers,little old ladies in tennis shoes, guys withwhite robes and hoods packed away in thecloset, and so on, would have been ontenterhooks waiting for the REAL PROOF,the very words in which the Satanic Master inthe Kremlin commanded his servant, ThatMan In the White House, to do his evilbidding, to destroy White Christian America. While professors, trust-fund white-glovedladies, think-tank veterans of the heady dayswhen all America was theirs to remold as theyknew was right, and their comrades would belooking mournfully for the proof of how OurFranklin had striven manfully (manliness wasnot an oppressive signifier back then) todefend Fellow Democrat Joe against the

knuckle-dragging Malefactors of GreatWealth here, there, and everywhere.

Neither would be pleased with the reality.I suppose one could say that it is a

disappointment, with all the terrible secretsbeing pulled out of the Annals ofCommunism , that this correspondence is sobanal. A substantial proportion of thesem e s s a g e s a r e b i r t h d a y g r e e t in g s ,congratulations of various sorts, wishes ofgood health, and the like.

Sometimes the content of these exchangesdips to the petty, where Roosevelt patientlyinforms Stalin of the names of the ships beinglent to the Soviets in lieu of units of theItalian fleet, and the tonnages of the merchantships (Pages 206-207). Why should such amatter even be considered at that level?

Some of course are not so fluffy. Roosevelt at least tried to defend the Polishexile government’s position on the Katynmassacre even though he also seemed to findit a conflict between domestic and foreignpolitics. Stalin’s message seems almostpetulant (Pages 123-124) while the editorincludes a commentary from U.S. Secretaryof State Cordell Hull which while not openlysaying so, implicitly accuses the Soviets ofthe murder (Pages 124-125). Notsurprisingly, the discussion was diverted intoaccusations regarding the Polish exilegovernment.

While these messages, in theirconfirmation of other sources, not to mentiontheir frequent triviality, are not surprisingoverall, there are a number of questions thatare not raised in the commentary. Given thatthe introduction is by someone with areputation of defending FDR, it is notsurprising that such issues would not beraised. For example:

In the introduction, Arthur Schlesenger,Jr. states that Joseph Davies found the purgetrials to be dubious (Pages 17-18). This is aradical new revelation, considering the blatantstatements to the contrary in Davies’s memoirof his ambassadorship, Mission to Moscow.(1941).

In August of 1943, Undersecretary ofState Sumner Welles resigned his post. Theletter of 25 September 1943 is an apology forSecretary of State Cordell Hull’s healthproblems, requiring changes in theforthcoming foreign ministers’ conferencethat Welles had been scheduled to attend andthat Hull had to in his stead (Pages 166-167). The background material attributes Welles’s

resignation to Hull’s “discomfiture” at his andRoosevelt’s close relationship. However, thereal reason Welles resigned was over adifferent sort of close relationship; Welles hadpropositioned a number of Pullman portersduring a train trip in 1940, evidently not thefirst time either. For some reason Butlerdoesn’t mention this.

One letter, dated March 24, 1944,concerns an abortive effort to establish aliason and coordination between the OSS, theAmerican special warfare organization, andthe Soviet NKVD. The president cancelledthe plan and Butler quotes Averill Harrimanas saying, almost apologetically, “J. EdgarHoover and Admiral Leahy had beenresponsible for changing the President’smind.” (Page 217; citing Harriman’s bookSpecial Envoy).

Butler reports that the initial negotiationswere in Moscow, between General WilliamDonovan, the chief of the OSS, and twosenior NKVD officers: “Lt. Gen. P. N. Fitin,chief of the External Intelligence Service, andMaj. Gen. A. P. Ossipov, head of the sectionthat conducted subversive activities in enemycountries.” (Pages 217-218). PavelMikhailovich Fitin appears in the VENONAdecrypts several times, under the code nameVIKTOR, running intelligence efforts againstthe U.S. from 1942 on. “Ossipov” was apseudonym for NKVD officer Gaik B.Ovakimyan, the former New York stationchief for the NKVD, who had been expelledfrom the U.S. in 1941. For some reasonButler doesn’t mention this.

A recurring theme is Soviet suspicion of aseparate peace. Butler cites an article fromPravda on January 17, 1944 claiming that“two leading British personalities” met withthe German Foreign Minster, Joachim vonRibbentrop, to discuss a separate peace. Then, regarding a real meeting, one of the lastmessages is a telegram from Stalindemanding Soviet representation at AllenDulles’s negotiations for a German surrenderin Italy (Pages 305-307). There are variousreports of Soviet negotiations for a separatepeace, which broke down because theGermans demanded too much. These are ofcourse not mentioned, and were notmentioned at the time.

My Dear Mr. Stalin is important, in anegative sort of way, as confirming otherreports and presentations of history. It israther a partisan work, and should be read in

conjunction with other works on the era.The Yale University Press had previously

brought out a book with other lettersbeginning “Dear Mr. Stalin”: What StalinKnew (2005), by David E. Murphy, whichincludes what purport to be the texts of twoletters written to Stalin by Hitler. Two veryreassuring letters; no doubt Stalin’s paranoiawas confirmed in retrospect, and he may haveregarded these messages in a similar light.

ONE FOR ALL AND TWO FORFIVE

Review by Joseph T Major ofTHE FOUR MUSKETEERS:

The True Story of d’Artagnan, Porthos,Aramis & Athos

by Kari Maund and Phil Nanson(Tempus Publishing; 2006;

ISBN 978-0-7524-3503-9; $27.50)

It was the old Brigadier who wastalking in the café:

I see where there is soon to appeara romance of the four men ofGascony; M. de Batz-Castlemore, M.de Portau, M. d’Aramitz, and M.d’Athos. Their descendants are yet inGascony, and hearing of theiradventurous lives from their familiesmade our long nights round the firealive with excitement. Little did Iknow that that excited boy, I, ÉtienneGérard, would have as manyfascinating adventures as they — Sir,I am your debtor!

— Not by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or evenAlexandre Dumas

Charles de Batz-Castlemore is notunknown to history. His devoted obedienceto duty in the service of the young King LouisXIV, his firm hand in command of theMousquetaires du Roi (where, in partnershipwith M. de Churchill, he saved the life ofMonseigneur le Duc de Monmouth), hisgallant death on the field of honor at the siegeof Maastricht, have earned him a small butnot undeserved place in the annals of France.

However, most of us know him under thetitle he sort of aggrandized to himself; and atthat, as a character of a striking fiction. ForCharles de Batz-Castlemore called himselfSeigneur d’Artagnan [and later Comted’Artagnan]; and d’Artagnan is famous as thefourth of The Three Musketeers (Les TroisMousquetaires, 1844) and its many sequels.

Alexiad August 2006 Page 9

But Dumas began by saying that he hadfound a biography of the man. This is yourtypical framing sequence, of course — exceptthat there really was such a book. Admittedly, its veracity was not much betterthan Dumas’s novel.

Maund and Nanson have explicated acomplex structure of relationships in thiswork. They discuss the real d’Artagnan andthe real Isaac de Portau (“Porthos”), Armandde Sillègue d’Athos d’Autevielle (“Athos”),and Henri d’Aramitz (“Aramis”). They werefrom the same part of France, and the authorstell about their various fates, progeny, and soon, as well as discussing the characters in thebook.

It was royal patronage that maded’Artagnan as well off as he was, and he wasalso a client of Cardinal Mancini (so much forVingt ans après [Twenty Years After] (1845)). This leads to a discussion of the militaryhistory of their unit, the Mousquetaires duRoi, the French king’s body-guard and shocktroop. This last was what got d’Artagnankilled. (The musketeer companies tended tobe disbanded in each royal infancy; theauthors pass over the inept revival underLouis XVIII during the period afterNapoleon’s first abdication, where theyproved to be no longer d’Artagnans; seeChapter 31 of Swords Around a Throne byColonel John R. Elting (1997) for that sadtale.)

They discuss the man who made it allpossible, Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras, andhis work, Mémoirs de M. d’Artagnan (1700). Courtilz de Sandras seems to have been a bitof a fantast, and for a different reason alwaysin trouble. The Memoirs of d’Artagnan havemore to do with Courtilz himself than withCharles de Batz-Castlemore d’Artagnan.

Then, another writer found them . . . LesTrois Mousquetaires was quite the literarysensation in France at the time of itspublication, and the authors discuss itsreception; the book had the misfortune ofbeing popular, and was accordingly dislikedby literary authorities

Their discussion of the book goes intohow Dumas took incidents from Courtilz’snarrative and reworked them into a moreinteresting and dramatic narrative. Whichleads us to Dumas’s habits of having othersdo first drafts. It was not as bad as we, wholive in the era of “celebrity authors” who willsomeday read “their own” books, wouldbelieve. Dumas proposed the topic and

heavily reworked outlines. When his “first-draft” collaborators tried to sell bythemselves, they didn’t, so he must have beenthe one who had the spark.

Finally, the authors discuss theMusketeers after the novel. Sharecroppedsequels followed inevitably, as well asDumas’s own (besides Twenty Years Afterthere is Le Vicomte de Bragleonne (1848-50),a novel so long it is usually broken up and thelast part known as The Man In the IronMask). There were plays, the first of whichwas The Musketeers, by Dumas himself withAuguste Maquet, performed in 1845; it’sbased on Twenty Years After. And whenmovies came along, there were movies. Theauthors think well of the Ilya Salkindproduction (script by George MacDonaldFraser) The Three Musketeers and The FourMusketeers.

And of course they mention the fantasyadaptations, Joel Rosenberg’s Not Exactly theThree Musketeers (1999) and Steven Brust’sThe Phoenix Guards (1991) Five HundredYears After (1994), The Paths of the Dead(2002), The Lord of Castle Black (2003), andSethra Lavode (2004).

The Four Musketeers provides a welcomeand entertaining explanation and history of abook which has had the annoying habit ofbeing voluntarily read by people in the placeof those great classics approved by theexperts. All for one and one for all.

We’re cheered from Cologne to AlgiersEach time our motto appears

It’s one for all and two for fiveWe’re four of the three musketeers.

— “The Musketeers”, Bert Kalmar andHarry Ruby, “Animal Crackers”

YOU DON’T KNOWReview by Joseph T Major of

STRANGE ANGEL:The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist

John Whiteside Parsonsby George Pendle

(Harcourt; 2005; ISBN 0-15-100997-X;$25.00)

Rocketry is perhaps the prime example ofa field of activity in which the foundersbecome profoundly unable to work in it oncethe field has matured. I am grateful to BillBreuer for calling my attention to the case ofthe Mercury capsule that would not fit on the

Atlas rocket that was to launch it on a test. Nowadays, there would be two years ofdelays marked by inquests, hearings, andrecriminations; back then, they went to Sears,bought a router, and ground down thecapsule’s heat shield to fit.

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky diedtoo soon to take part in governmentoperations (and considering that SergeiPavlovich Korolev got to the post of ChiefDesigner by way of Kolyma, perhaps that wasa blessing), but the other two Fathers ofRocketry found themselves sidelined. RobertHutchings Goddard, initially ridiculed andconsequently secretive, withdrew into his owntests and did nothing more to influence thefield. Hermann Julius Oberth, after a spellwriting papers he could not get clearance toread, went back to Germany and worked onrather hard-line politics.

Marvel Whiteside Parsons would haveunderstood all this, mostly because he did. Born in Pasadena in 1914 to Marvel H.Parsons and the former Ruth VirginiaWhiteside, he gained a more normal firstname after his parents’ divorce, becomingJohn Whiteside Parsons, but known more as“Jack”.

Jack suffered through the problems of abright but unruly child. (Throughout his lifeand particularly in the means of his death, butthis is getting somewhat ahead of the story.) He had the freedom and the burden of beingan outsider, a member of a well-to-do family,an only child. He could make explosives in aframe structure inside the city limits, forexample.

Also, there was a publication calledAmazing Stories out there, displayingspeculation about the future and the effects ofscience. A lot of people took it to heart. JackParsons was one of a group of young rocketboys who coalesced into a research group.

Now if you’ve read Rocket Ship Galileoor October Sky you should know whathappened next. That’s right, explosions! Parsons and his friends had available somereasonably untenanted land nearby, and so thegorges near Pasadena began to resound to theroar of exploding rocket engines.

As the world crisis itself exploded,Parsons and his friends (who rejoiced in thesignificant name of the “Suicide Squad”)became serious players, working on rocketengines for someone who was willing to payactual money for that Buck Rogers stuff —the War Department. Pendle describes how

Parsons developed a stable, (comparatively)safe fuel for rocket-assisted takeoff — called,out of a need not to appear like that childishBuck Rogers stuff, “Jet Assisted Takeoff”,JATO. (JATO rockets were fitted to the R4DQue Sera Sera that landed at the South Polein 1956 so that it could take off again, forexample.)

As usually happens, the innovators proveunable to provide the management skills oreven develop the cooperation needed as theirwork becomes mature, evolving fromdevelopment to production. Parsons and mostof his fellow early researchers were persuadedto be bought out of the firm that theyfounded, Aerojet, after the war, and separatedfrom the other organization they had set up,the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Parsons retired to his house, worked withvarious other partners in diverse ventures,most of them not very successful, and by1952 was reduced to being a movie special-effects technician. He was preparing squibsfor a movie shootout when the chemicals hewas working with detonated, apparently afterhe dropped the can he was stirring them in.

So far we have a picture of an amiableeccentric, brilliant, persistent, and innovative,but really too odd to readily function in astructured organization. But Jack Parsonswas notorious, sinister. How did that come topass?

Pendle also recounts, with a serious tone,the esoteric events of his private life. Parsons, you see, was a believer in Magick,and from that spelling the well-informedreader should be able to tell who he wasinvolved with.

Pendle has set himself the difficult task oftreating not one but two of the more unsavorypersonalities of the period and milieu as ifthey were worthwhile people. The one whowas the first influence on this part ofParsons’s life was the English mountaineerand writer Edward Alexander Crowley —better known as Aleister Crowley, betterknown as an occultist, explorer of what hecalled Magick.

Pendle portrays him as a philosophicalexplorer, interested in spiritual self-development and exploration of unrealizedhuman potentials. He would probably havebeen pleased with that portrayal, but fewothers would have. The image of a wasted,heroin-addicted, broken man who had runthrough all the money he had or could get,

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destroyed the lives of the people he had dealtwith, used up and abandoned mistresses likelavatory paper, is more like it.

Parsons became involved with the LosAngeles group of Crowley’s O.T.O. Thepicture given here is of a somewhatotherworldly group of unusual thinkers, amore intellectual approach to the New Age. Again, this isn’t quite what other observershave made of it, though Pendle hints at acertain high level of sexual experimentationin the group.

Which brings us to the other unsavoryperson, your friend and mine LafayetteRonald Hubbard. Pendle touches on Elron’searly writing days, how he moved from thegeneral pulp field to specifically fantasticfiction, and became involved with the circlethat also included Parsons after WWII, tellingtales of his naval heroics. (And Pendledoesn’t mention how inflated those were.)

The description of the evocation ofBabalon the spirit, done by Elron, Parsons,and Parsons’s sister-in-law and lover Betty(Sarah Elizabeth) Northrup omits one or twolittle facts, such as how Babalon was going tobe incarnated (Parsons was reading spells tokeep off mere human souls while Elron andBetty were, er, anticipating their maritalprivileges). Then came the yacht swindle,then the Science of Modern Mental Health,then came the dropped can . . .

In the course of this narrative, Pendle hasmentioned many persons and organizations ofinterest. For example, he recounts the veryearly days of what was then the Los AngelesScience Fiction League (now LASFS) as itmet in cafeterias and planned to send men tothe stars. He also describes the fascinatingpersonalities of that era, Robert A. Heinlein,Jack Williamson, Ray Bradbury, and a manwho contributed wholeheartedly and deeplyto this work, Forrest J. Ackerman. (As if Icould forget him.)

The portrayal of that different country thatis the past, that time and place whereeverything seemed possible and the stars wereout there, is a heartbreaking reminder of howmuch we have lost in the advance of theworld.

COOL HAND LUKEReview by Joseph T Major of

HELP AT ANY COSTHow the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons

Parents and Hurts Kids

by Maia Szalavitz(Riverhead (Penguin); 2006;

ISBN 1-59448-910-6; $25.95)

Aaron barely had enough gear to live. Hisboots, for example, were what he could get;two sizes too small. Nevertheless he wasordered to march into the desert.

There was no food for him, and thatcombined with his intestinal problems beganto weaken him. The guards abused him forfalling out, as he was so obviously faking it.

He was dunked, then punished by beingdeprived of his sleep gear. He couldn’t carryhis pack, so he had no food. In spite of whichhe was incontinent, so much so that he quitwearing trousers or underpants — for whichhe was further punished.

Three weeks after he was taken prisoner,he died of peritonitis caused by an untreatedintestinal ulcer.

If you find this unspeakable cruelty, anatrocious violation of civil and human rights,you just don’t understand. This was therapy.

Maia Szalavitz, a writer for publicationsranging from Reason to O , reports here on adisturbing trend in juvenile therapy. A littlediscussion of the background will help. InPsychobabble (1977), R. D. Rosen recountsthe stories of a number of “new therapies”,telling a repetitive tale of authoritarianism,clannishness, and abuse; the climax being thestory of a woman who entered such aprogram for a minor problem and under itsdirection and care developed into apsychologically disabled, self-mutilating,emotionally manipulative paranoid who hadto be treated constantly, and ended up takingher own life.

Most of these therapies collapsed. Thesurvivors became more cultish. Indeed, thestory of one therapy, a group that was praisedas a solution to addiction, became a cult, in allthe meaning of that word: Synanon. Thestory of its explosive decompression isrecounted in several works, notably The Lighton Synanon by Dave Mitchell et al. (1980))

But as adults had the ability and desire toget out of such matters; quit sitting in Estseminars for sixteen hours nonstop,confessing in rebirthing seminars to havingbeen always agents of Trotsky, er alcoholics,and the like, they found someone else whoreally needed this therapy and had no choicein the matter. Their children.

Much of this therapy was designed for the

hard-core offender for whom no other methodhad worked. The “new therapies” that Rosendiscussed were intended for the emotionallystable; the profoundly disturbed foundthemselves in these seminars, with amazing(not necessarily good) effect. Similarly, thesetherapies were prescribed for major offenders,minor offenders, those who were suspected ofbeing offenders, and even those who weresuspected of possibly being on the way tobecoming offenders. That’s right, if your ex-wife thinks your son might be thinking of atoke, she can have thugs break into yourhouse at midnight, jerk the boy out of bed,and ship him off to a facility that NikolaiIvanovich Yezhov, he of the Soviet GreatTerror, would consider deserving of anHonored Chekist award for spectacularlyoverfulfilling their quotas for brutality.

These facilities come across as innovativeand experimental, thus not able to beregulated by existing authorities. Instead theyset up their own licensing group, the WorldWide Association of Specialty Programs(WWASP). The result is that many have staffwho would qualify as unfit to be prisonguards, too untrained, inexperienced, andbrutal. (Szalavitz cites a psychologicalexperiment of “guards and prisoners” that wasaborted when the “guards” became too brutal;and this was only an experiment (Pages 36-37).) And they come cheap, too. Szalavitzgives some figures on how such programs aresuch profit centers, charging parents $12,000or more per patient while paying sub-minimum wage to staffers, and not muchmore for food and shelter. The therapists whomade Aaron undergo such tough love, forexample, were pulling down $1,000,000 —$1,500,000 net a year.

The world is flat, as Thomas D. Friedmanreports, and what this means is that suchfacilities can be international. Teens beingtaken to Costa Rica, Jamaica, or Samoa forsuch treatment puts them outside even theminimal reach of American jurisprudence. And the State Department has a record ofindifference. (Where are all the human rightsand civil liberties groups? This is therapy,it’s for their own good.)

One of those treatment methods used inSamoa was taken from Cool Hand Luke. That’s right, when a boy showed deviantbehavior, he was put in the box, a three footby three foot holding facility (Page 138). Atleast it was high enough for them to stand. (Look up “Little Ease” sometime.)

As mentioned, often children were takenfrom houses at night, by methods eerilyreminiscent (though Szalavitz doesn’t,perhaps doesn’t dare, mention it) of Sovietarrest techniques. “Escorts” would drive thepatient some eighteen hours virtually nonstopto the facility. This is not the sort of escortservice one enjoys hiring for oneself.

Even those who were theoretically adultwere kept in, by methods ranging frommanipulation to outright confinement. There,the theory was so much in keeping withmodern therapeutic doctrine that it can beunderstood why these organizations fit: thus,children who had never used recreationaldrugs were adjudged to be in denial, andsubjected to stronger measures. (The waythat innocent victims of child molestationaccusations have a harder time in prison thanthe guilty, because by maintaining theirinnocence they are considered to be indenial.)

Lulu, for example, was sentenced tothirteen years in such a facility for wearing anartificial leather body suit like Madonnawore. While wanting to dress like Mads isnot the best of taste, the sentence does seemexcessive. Look carefully at that term; shewas sent up when she was thirteen, and yes,they kept her in juvenile confinement for six“adult” years.

When they finally got to trial, the defensemaintained that Lulu had been molested as achild, was a druggie, and that they reallycared for children. This last comment cameafter the therapist in question had to adjournfor a bathroom break. The therapy includednot only refusing the patients such leaveduring long sessions of therapy, but when itwas finally granted, supervising their timespent, er, doing so. (Remember “est”?) Theorganization’s insurance company setted fora big judgment; they couldn’t give Lulu backher teenage years.

Parents are encouraged to contribute tothese measures. They are supposed topractice “tough love”, ignoring anycomplaints from the child and writing brief,emotionally distant and distancing letters. They are recommended to put in place “exitplans”, restrictive measures for abandoningchildren who don’t follow the program. Admittedly, if a parent already believes that achild needs help, the parent is likely to gowith the program. They are experts and knowbetter.

Szalavitz cites one example of this put

Alexiad August 2006 Page 11

forward by the Teen Help organization:

. . .The idea here is that individualscontrol everything that happens tothem in life. If you are raped, if youdie in a plane crash, if you get a fatalillness: none of this happens if itwasn’t wha t you “intended ” ,according to the WWASP seminarphilosophy. This ideology is pushedas a method of empowerment, as away to avoid blaming others for one’sproblems.

— Help at Any Cost, Page 163

This is of course the philosophy of theSturch in Philip José Farmer’s The Lovers(1952, 1961) and Timestop! (1953, 1960). AsSzalavitz points out, it is supposed tocounteract the common ploy of blamingeveryone else for one’s own problems and nottaking any personal responsibility; as Farmerpointed out through his Ozagenian character,it makes a great basis for absoluteunrestrained power.

Even when dragged into court, thesetherapists seem to evade punishment. Aaron’s case, for example, although to allintents and purposes a brutal killing, ended upwith those indicted getting time served. There were so many that no one wasresponsible. (Wouldn’t it be possible to getthem for a “pattern of racketeering” under theR acke te e r In f lu e n c ed a n d C o rrup tOrganizations [RICO] Act?)

Szalavitz cites as an example of thebrutality of such places the Michael Skakelcase, where under the customary self-denunciation pressure at his school, a typicalfacility like these except even moreexpensive, Skakel confessed to the murder ofhis sometime neighbor, Martha Moxley. Skakel was later tried and convicted of thatmurder; in his account of the trial [“Trail ofGuilt”; reprinted in Justice: Crimes, Trials,and Punishments, Pages 400-426] DominickDunne cites the abuse and pretty much agreeswith Szalavitz on the brutality of the school.

It is troubling to note that these“therapies” are grounded in reputablepsychological theory. The therapeuticcommunity has demonstrated a consistentpolicy of tolerating any behavior in the nameof “helping a patient”. This book has beencriticized; it will keep people who need helpfrom getting it. This kind of help?

GREYHOUNDby Lisa

http://www.equinenet.org/heroes/greyhound.html

Champion trotter Greyhound “was foaledin 1932.” When he was sold, he only broughta few hundred dollars, in spite of being by achampion sire, Guy Abbey. Like SeattleSlew forty-three years later, he was toogawky to bring a high price. He won the 1935Hambletonian. As a gelding, he raced until1940, breaking record after record.

Together he and Rosalind, the filly ofBorn to Trot, broke the team record.Greyhound lived until 1965.

Greyhound had a 23 foot stride,plenty of speed and all the courage arace horse needs. He was easy tohandle, very responsive to his driver,and could trot at a speed of 25 milesper hour. Nearly always in the money,and usually the winner, Greyhoundbecame a crowd favorite. His stylewas to start each race out in front andstay there till the end. By the time hewas retired in 1940, after seven yearsof racing, he had broken records forjust about every distance from aquarter mile to two miles.

http://www.mi-harness.com/publct/trttrcen.html From September 1971 Hoof Beats

“The Trotter of the Century”

Greyhound even impressed Thoroughbredauthorities enough for them to name himHorse of the Year, the only trotter ever toreceive the honor.

This is a fascinating article and well worthreading. I wish I could have seen Greyhoundrace.

QUARTER HORSESby Lisa

Quarter Horses are the first trulyAmerican breed of horse. Over a quarter of amile, they are the fastest horses anywhere.They excel at handling cattle because of theirgreat cow sense.They are also noted for howquickly they can stop. Quarter Horses can befound in competitions ranging from rodeos todressage. Anyone who has seen Dances WithWolves has seen a Quarter Horse. It was a

Quarter Horse named Plain Justin Bar whoplayed Cisco. Another Quarter Horse, DocsKeeping Time, played Black Beauty and evenappeared in a rock music video, as well asplaying the Black Stallion on TV. Notypecasting for this horse!

I have seen these horses put onastonishing performances at the Horse Park. Like the Thoroughbred, their foundationblood came from Arab, Turk and Barb horses.Thoroughbreds like Janus, a grandson of theGodolphin Arabian, and Sir Archy alsoplayed a large part in early Quarter Horsebreeding. Thoroughbred blood is still beingused for Quarter Horses. Racing championTailor Fit is a descendant of notedThoroughbred Raise A Native.

The first Quarter Horse races took place in 1674 in colonial Virginia.

RACING NEWSby Lisa

Numbersixvalverde won the famoussteeplechase, the Grand National. Last year hewon the big Irish steeplechase. Forty horsesstarted the race but only nine finished. Therewas one fatality, Tyneandtyneagain.Numbersixvalverde traces back to the DarleyArabian through legendary sire Nasrullah.

Siena’s historic Palio race was won by thehorse from Contrada Tartuca, Italian fortortoise.I found this very amusing. I was notable to discover the horse’s name in severalminutes of searching.Joe says the horse mightnot have a name.I think if the Palio winnerdoesn’t have a name it ought to get one.

Artistic Fella won the million dollarMeadowlands Pace. He is a grandson ofHorse Park champion Cam Fella.

Bernardini overpowered his opponents inwhat looked like an easy win in the JimDandy. It’s a real pity his career will probably always be overshadowed byBarbaro’s fate. I am in danger of falling bigfor Bernardini. I think what happened toBarbaro will make it hard for him to get therespect he deserves. His Preakness win willalways have a question mark over it. A win inthe Travers, though, could give him a realshot at being champion three-year-old.

THE MARTIANby George Du Maurier

George Bell and Sons, 1897Reviewed by Richard Dengrove

Most novels of the 1890s concerned withlife on Mars used a style that resembledmodern science fiction’s, like Pope’s Journeyto Mars (1894) and Robert Crombie’s Plungeinto Space (1890). They were novels ofderring do. While they may have been tingedwith satire, so is modern science fiction.

Most of this novel’s style does notresemble any of these. Instead, it resembles aVictorian novel like the ones older people,like me, were assigned to read in high school. Victorian novels, yeccchhh!! I can hear somepeople say. They have a reputation for havinga lot of useless verbiage.

I suspect that is a bad rap. We are just soused to fast action and plot driven novels thatwe figure all verbiage is useless. We tend toforget the virtues of good character,description and theme.

The Martian was not the best of theVictorian novels by a longshot. It wasn’t eventhe best of Du Maurier’s novels. It lacks thetimeless theme of Trilby. We are stillcompelled by how Trilby was hypnotized andforced to sing by the morally tone-deafSvengali. There is nothing compelling likethat in this novel. It is no wonder the novelhas only been republished once since its1897publication date.

Nonetheless, I found The Martian eminently readable. Like many Victoriannovels, the novel tells the story of a person. Inthis case, the entire life of Barty Josselyn.

This gives Du Maurier the chance to injecta lot of character into his novel. Along theway, Barty stops and interacts with all sorts ofpeople. Like in the novels of Dickens, theyspan social strata. It isn’t just the rich andnoble.

It helps Du Maurier in developingcharacter that the life bears close parallelswith his own. Like Barty, he was an artist inBritain, France and Belgium. Like Barty, helost the sight of one eye. Barty, however, diesbefore he can start losing his sight in the othereye.

Du Maurier delights in inserting quirksthat interest us. One character that sticks outin my mind is one of Barty’s teachers whenhe was boy in France, M. Bonzig. He meetsout onerous punishments he never evenbothers to remember much less enforce.

As an adult, Barty runs into M. Bonzigagain. Bonzig has decided to become an artist

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who paints nothing but ships, boats and thesea, even though he has never seen the sea.Ultimately, his life turns into a tragic irony.When he finally travels to the sea, he drowns.

A more important character is LeahGibson. She is half-Jewish. I am sure, at base,she is as much of a stereotype as the amoral,fully Jewish Svengali in Trilby. In contrast,her stereotype is loyal, businesslike andstrong. As with Svengali, details flesh her out.For one thing, she is Du Maurier’s ideal ofbeauty: a Classical face and a tall and slenderfigure, tall enough and slender enough to befashionable right now.

So admirable is Leah the author is verymuch smitten with her. So is Barty. She is oneRebecca who gets her Ivanhoe. In exchange,Barty gets everything his other worldly andfun-loving person needs to deal effectivelywith the fame and money.

Which brings us to Barty. He is funloving. As a child, he wows adults with hismusic, songs and his spirit of fun — evenwhen it gets mischievous. Also, it helps thathe is a beautiful child.

Later on, we see the one thing he can getserious about, art. While drinking, partyingand whoring distracted him from soldiering,they can never distract him from art. Not eventhe loss of an eye can.

Du Maurier had a plus for bringing hischaracters home that most authors cannotavail themselves of. For much of his workinglife, he made his living as an illustrator. Whenhe went to write novels, he illustrated themhimself. I heard he sometimes did over ahundred illustrations for some books. I heardfor The Martian he did forty-eight. I don’tknow; I never counted them.

These illustrations increase ourappreciation for the characters. They are likewhat he did for Punch or Harper’s, charactersketches. He was good at them. With a hint ofcaricature, he could bring out the character inanyone.

As well as giving character to hischaracters, Du Maurier gives his opinion alot. In this, he was like a lot of Victoriannovelists.

His opinion on some things does not gotoo much against the modern grain. He findsno problem with the ‘lower’ classes; he findsno problem even with socializing with them.He only objects to people with airs. He cannoteven stick to that. At one point of the novel,we learn that he does not really object to themeither.

In addition, Du Maurier is definitely funloving.

With one view, he goes against themodern grain, however: he favors eugenics.Du Maurier has Barty advocate it in books hewrites; and Robert Maurice, the narrator,follow it. While Maurice is not particularlyugly in the illos, he claims that he never gotmarried because his looks would hinder therace. In Du Maurier’s view, beauty, à la Platois a good which must be bred into us.

I said at the beginning that The Martian isat bottom science fiction, a variation on theMars novels that were being written in the1890s. So far it has just been a regularVictorian novel.

Near the beginning, Du Maurierforeshadows this science fiction. We find outthat Barty has very sensitive seeing andhearing. His most extraordinary ability,though, is that he knows instinctively wherenorth is. Later on, he is distressed when heperiodically loses the ability to detect north.

Around page 200, we find that Barty ispossessed by the soul of a female Martianwith the unoriginal name of Martia. At night,when he believes he is asleep, he discovers hehas been writing letters to himself signedMartia.

She, of course, says that she wasoriginally a Martian. The details make thingseven more curious. Her species wereoriginally sea mammals like sea lions. However, they evolved into something morebeautiful and intelligent. Among their abilitiesis sensing magnetic fields, like Barty doeswhen he senses north.

In this respect, Du Maurier broke from themold of Mars novels of the 1890s. TheirMartians were little different from humans. Itwas only after H.G. Wells’ War of the Worldsthe next year, 1897, that that fashion changedand writing about non-human extraterrestrialsonce again became popular. For Du Maurier’spart, he gets the jump on the newextraterrestrials.

Martia the Martian was part of DuMaurier’s strategy to make his novel a laterVictorian blockbuster. He often introducedinto his novels the fashionable topics of theday. Hypnotism in Trilby, and Martians here.Maybe Wells did the same thing: he decidedto come out with War of the Worlds becauseMartians were fashionable.

Similarly, Du Maurier introducedeugenics and reincarnation because they werefashionable topics. Maybe reincarnation is not

science fiction; however, it fits in. It isintegral to Barty meeting with Martia. In fact,reincarnation may have been a more crediblevehicle to Du Maurier and his readers thanrockets.

While Mars was Martia’s planet of origin,she had died and her soul, like others’, haddrifted among the planets. Finally, it landedon Earth.

However, though she was now inproximity to bodies, she had not chosen, asother souls, to be reincarnated and lose hermemory. She stuck around for about acentury, and possessed and experiencedhuman beings.

Presently, Martia possesses Barty’s body.That explains some of his abilities. Also, itexplains Barty’s future greatness. In her sleepwriting, she tells Barty that she will dictatebooks to him that will change his world andmake him world famous. He does as she bids.It may be just as well that Du Maurierventures only to hint at the nature of thesebooks. From the titles, however, they seem tobe novels.

One wonders how this entity with such aninsight into humans could, in one instance, besuperficial. Martia is when she urges Barty tomarry the aristocratic Julia Boyce rather thanthe plebeian, down-to-Earth Leah. Martia isinfatuated with Julia’s social status.

However, all in honesty, it doesn’t reallymar her character that much.

It does mar it that she advocates eugenics.Also, that her species, for ‘moral’ reasons, haspracticed eugenics with a vengeance. Allanimals that are not useful or beautiful aredestroyed. Of course, Du Maurier seems toagree with them.

After Barty writes Martia’s books andthey are published to public acclaim, Martiasenses her mission has ended and decides toreincarnate into one of Barty’s children,Marty.

Here we return to the more typicalVictorian novel. In fact, it goes in for thebathos the better authors avoided. Marty falls,hurts herself and dies. Of course, Du Mauriermight have figured this bathos would aid theblockbuster he wanted to write.

As far as I am concerned, the novel ismore interesting before that when real enoughpeople interact and a Martian possesses ahuman.

PALADIN OF SOULSby Lois McMaster Bujold

New York: EOS, 2003A review by Colleen R. Cahill

Medieval fantasies are a mix of pleasureand pain these days: there is so much dreckout there that a good piece seems an anomaly. And when you get a series, the story justseems to go on and on and on . . . But thereis a reason this genre is so popular, as wellwritten fantasy is more than swords andsorcery: it combines fantastic worlds andmagic with believable characters and complexplots. This is just what Lois McMasterBujold has done in her Hugo-winning novelPaladin of Souls, taking us again to the worldof The Curse of Chalion but giving us a newview and quite different story, as a royallady’s attempt to hide from the past takessome unexpected turns.

For the three years since the curse waslifted and her madness removed DowagerRoyina Ista has been taking care of her agedmother. When the Provincara finally passesaway, Ista feels trapped in Baocia by both hertitle and those who fear a return of hermelancholy. After a chance meeting with aband of pilgrims, Ista is inspired to take herown journey to various religious sites,supposedly to pray for a grandson. In reality,Ista wants to go somewhere that has nomemories for her and to leave the ghosts ofher past behind. This includes leaving behindher current court, which she replaces with adivine of the Bastard, a troop of soldiersdedicated to the Daughter, and a farm-girl-turned courier as her lady-in-waiting. Traveling incognito as the widow of a minorlord, Ista seeks to leave her troubles behind,with no reminders of her life at court or of herpart in a murder, nor of her time as a saint, aperson touched by one of the five gods. Fora while, Ista does find some relief, but soonshe is plagued by dreams, ones that could bea portend of a dark future. When hercompany is overtaken by a band of raidingsoldiers from Jokona, Ista finds that she is notas in control of her life as she hoped and thatonce again she is a tool of a god.

Paladin of Souls gives us a deeper look atthe religion of Chalion and the pantheon offive gods whose gifts are often seen as havingbarbs in them. In the past, Ista was “blessed”with the attentions of the Mother, but now theBastard finds her interesting. This god is theson of a demon and has a greater sense ofhumor than the Mother, one that Ista oftenfinds annoying, especially as she seems to be

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the brunt of the joke. Bujold also gives usmore insights into the workings of thereligious military units through Ferda andFoix dy Gura, soldiers in service to theDaughter who appeared in the previous book. The introduction of Liss, once a messagecourier but now the rough-around-the-edgeshandmaiden to Ista, reveals more of the livesof the common people, such as farmers andservants.

Ista’s capture by enemy forces and rescueby a border lord brings out not only the clashbetween countries and religions, as theJokona’s consider the Bastard a heresypunishable by death, but also a mystery. There is definitely something wrong at CastlePorifors, something that circles around theLord, his wife and his half-brother. As Istaslowing unwinds the riddles that hold twomen barely alive, she discovers an evil thatgoes back to the time of the Golden Generalof Jokona, an evil that the Bastard has chosenher to erase.

There is plenty of fun and romance in thisbook, with a remorseful but vigorous Istatrying to reach beyond the errors of her pastto a happier future. You need not read TheCurse of Chalion to enjoy this title, as thestories are only loosely linked. It is notsurprising this won a Hugo, as Bujold givesus a story that has meat on its bones and apage-turning plot is sure to satisfy thosecravings for a good medieval fantasy. Sonext time that hunger hits you, pick upPaladin of Souls; you will find it well worththe time.

THE ELECTRIC LIFE OFMICHAEL FARADAY

by Alan Hirshfeld, (Walker & Company, 2006, 258 pages/indexed, $24.00, ISBN-139780802714701 &

ISBN-I00802714706)Reviewed by Jim Sullivan

Here’s the life story of Michael Faraday.He was a lower class, Englishman, born inSeptember 1791 in a little community later tobecome a part of London. Thoughapprenticed to a bookbinder, Faraday’s firstlove was science. Not formally educated, heread a lot of science and attended manypublic lectures on the various subjects in thatfield.

Then one day, he accidentally metHumphry Davy — that era’s star scientist,

about a dozen years older than Faraday.Primarily a chemistry whiz , Davyimmediate ly took a liking to thepassionate-for-anything-scientific Faraday.Davy took the young uneducated, scienceenthusiast under wing.

Faraday began doing research assistancefor Davy and other science work at the RoyalInstitution of Great Britain in London. Davyhelped Faraday get this, eventually paid,position. Soon, Davy was knighted and withhis wealthy wife began traveling the world.On their trip around Europe, Sir Humphrytook his assistant along. Faraday marveled atthe sights and learned a lot in the capitals ofthe continent. But he suffered, too, from illtreatment at the hands of the snobbish,condescending Lady Davy, whom Faradaycame to loathe.

After that tour, Faraday returned to hisown science work at the Royal Institutionwhere he would remain for more than fourdecades. Little by little, this untutored lad didmore of his own work learning more andmore about science, particularly electricityand magnetism, among many subjects. As heprogressed in his knowledge throughexperimentation, academic scientists moreand more accepted him. Faraday’sexperiments, in fact, were provinggroundbreaking. The meticulous youngscientist was now publishing often. Moreover,he was giving popular science lectures at theRoyal Institution.

If Faraday received any complaints fromthe scientific community, they usuallyconcerned his inability to explain his workmathematically. In short, he was untrained inthis field, which was considered, then as now,essential in describing experiments andresults. Then, along came a worshipfuladmirer: the Scotsman James Clerk Maxwell.He knew math exceedingly well. Generously,he took Faraday’s electric, magnetic, andother scientific papers and put them intomathematical formula. Then Faraday’s workwas much more widely accepted. Maxwellwent on to science fame in his own right, too.

The scientist, Faraday, spent most of hislife experimenting, publishing, and lecturing.However, he did fmd time to marry hisbeloved Sarah. She was a member in goodstanding with the same faith, Sandemanian, as Faraday. The religion was named for RobertSandeman, a Protestant faith leader whosefollowers believed in being humble, pious,and though not poor, not rich either. The

newly married couple would take upresidence in a second story apartment in theRoyal Institution where they would remainfor the balance of his working life.

As he aged, he did less and less workbecause his memory was slipping andexperiments proved difficult. On August 25,1867, Michael Faraday died. As he’d earlierrequested, it was a private, family-onlyfuneral. The man was humble onto death andburial.

The author writes in the Epilogue:“During a career that spanned more than fourdecades, Faraday laid the experimentalfoundations of our technical society; madeimportant advances in chemistry, optics,geology, and metallurgy; developed prescienttheories about space, force, and light; pressedfor a scientifically literate populace yearsbefore science had been deemed worthy ofcommon study; and manned the barricadesagainst superstition and pseudoscience. Hesought no financial gain or honorifics for hisdiscoveries.” Faraday is remembered today,according to the author, with the use of theterm “‘faraday’ as the agreed-upon standardunit of electric charge involved inelectrolysis” and the term ‘’‘farad’ thatmeasures an electronics component’scharge-storing capacity.”

Alan Hirshfeld, the author, is a physicsprofessor at U. Mass. He has also penned thevolume: Parallax: The Race to Measure theCosmos.

Recommended.

WIND IN THE WILLOWSTaral Wayne

1959 50 . Anniversary Editionth

Wind in the Willows was written in 1909and is arguably one of the most importantworks of children’s fiction in the Englishlanguage, alongside James Barrie’s “PeterPan” and Lewis Carol’s Alice books. It iseven favoured with some of the best work bythe Edwardian era illustrator Ernest Sheppard,which are traditionally always published witheditions of the book. The 1959, fiftiethanniversary edition that I have is aparticularly nice one, with all the b&w andcolour illustrations, and was extremelycommon in public libraries when I wasyoung.

The book is about a community of smallanimals living in a very English rural setting.

The Mole loses his way and stumbles on theWater Rat, rowing his boat, thus becoming amember of the community. Mole iseveryman, an innocent. Rat is the decent andhardworking lower class type, what we wouldhave called middle class really. The actuallower classes are represented by the Weaselsand other wild animals who live in the Wood.Badger is the elderly gentleman, keeper oftradition and arbiter of manners. A manwhose advice is to be listened to. A bit of aColonel Blimp too, to be less sentimentalabout it. The real star of the show is Toad,though. Toad is the rich gentleman type, longon family tradition and money, but woefullysort of brains. Whatever newfangled fad hehears of, he throws himself into with theabandon of a moth for the flame. He nearlykills himself and gets the story underwaywhen he becomes infatuated with motorcars.

Between bouts of Toad’s madness, as he’sarrested for reckless driving and theft of anunattended motor carriage, wanders apenniless fugitive through the countryside,and slowly effects a (limited) reformationthrough a serious of outrageous adventures,the book is actually quite lyrical. A lost childis returned to its parents by the intervention ofPan, but a fog of forgetfulness erases thetranscendental experience from the minds of

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all. (Except the reader, of course.) Seasonschange and are reflected in the activities ofthe animals, particularly Rat who composespoetry and little songs to express his mood.There is serious danger as well, as when Molefoolishly ventures into the Wild Wood to findthe isolated dwelling place of Badger.

It is a wonderful book, and one that I havereturned to throughout my life.

Four authorized sequels by WilliamHorwood

In 1994, William Horwood began a seriesof sequels, with The Willows in Winter. Notquite to the same standard as the original,they are nevertheless enjoyable and continuethe lives of the Riverbankers in a worthyfashion. A couple of animated films havebeen made in the last ten years or so, based onthe Horwood books. There is also a veryamusing series of Claymation cartoons basedon the Grahame original, made in England,called Tales of the Riverbank. Disney alsomade “The Adventures of Mr. Toad” around1950. It is a pretty trivial rendition,eliminating all but the comic antics of Toad,and can be ignored.

PIERRE PLANTARD AND THE PRIORY OF SION

by Lee Gilliland

The main difficulty with The Da VinciCode is that it is based on faulty history not the least part of which is the so-called Prioryof Sion, supposedly an ancient secret orderbut in fact the work of a confidence tricksternamed Pierre Plantard. Something called theOrder de Sion existed in the Middle Ages andsomething called the Prieure du Sion existedfrom 1956 or thereabouts, but it doesn’t looklike they had much more than a name incommon. I have the sneaking suspicion theresemblance was deliberate, used to give theappearance of legitimacy to a con.

In the book, the priory is an ancientbrotherhood, founded in ca. 1099 to conservethe bloodline of Christ, when in fact it wasestablished by Plantard in 1956 in a smallFrench burg named Saint Julien-en-Genevois,“devoted to the Defence and Liberty ofLow-Cost Housing”. The incorporationpapers are still available for viewing at theprefecture there. The Prieure de Sion wassupposedly dissolved sometime after October1956, following Plantard’s conviction for

‘detournement de mineurs’ (yep, you got it —aiding and abetting the delinquency of).References to Pierre Plantard’s criminalconvictions are available for public inspectiona t t h e S u b - P r e f e c t u r e o f S a i n tJulien-en-Genevois, 4 Avenue de Geneve,7 4 1 6 4 s a i n t J u l i e n - e n - G e n e v o i s ,Haute-Savoie (Monsieur Serge Champanhetis the Secretary General of the Sub-prefecturefor written enquiries — the letter dated 8June 1956 by the Mayor of Annemasse to theSub Prefect contained in File Number KM94550, which holds the 1956 Priory of SionRegistration Documents, must be cited in thewritten enquiry). Plantard didn’t know whento quit — in 1993 he got into hot water witha judge named Thierry Jean-Pierre because heclaimed that Roger Patrice Pelat was a “GrandMaster of the Priory of Sion”(the Judge washeading an investigation into Pelat’squestionable financial practices).

The entire priory of Sion thing seems tohave been a way for Plantard to legitimizehimself as the descendant of the Merovingiandynasty, the one that founded Paris. Whetherthis was to make himself look better as asetup for some kind of scam is not clear, butjudging from what I’ve been able to find outabout the man, it would be the way to bet. For further reading on the web: priory-of-sion.com:

http://priory-of-sion.com/psp/id84.html

TWIX WHITE CHOCOLATEReview by Johnny Carruthers

[originally onhttp://chocolatescifi.livejournal.com/]

Not long after the Dark Chocolate Twixended its limited run on the shelves, Marsdecided to swing to the other end of thechocolate spectrum, and released the WhiteChocolate Twix. (There may have been someoverlap at some stores, depending on whatthey had in stock.)

As is the case with both the original andthe Dark Chocolate Twix bars, the WhiteChocolate Twix bar starts with a long, slendervanilla cookie, topped with caramel. Thisversion is then enrobed in white chocolate,and as usual, there are two bars to a package.

The white chocolate is pale ivory in color,as is the case with the higher quality whitechocolates. It has a creamy, mild, sweet flavorto it. As is usually the case, the cookie'spresence is more felt than tasted, bringing asubstantial crunch to the bar. And the caramel

is very firm, very chewy, and is the last flavorto leave your taste buds.

The vanilla cookie was perhaps a poorchoice for this bar. The bar would havebenefited from a chocolate cookie; somethingthat would have made a stronger contrast forthe white chocolate. Or if not a chocolatecookie, at least something that isn't as blandas the vanilla cookie.

As I mentioned, this was a limited edition,and the production run has probably long soldout by now (unless there was someenterprising entrepreneur who bought a largequantity and is now selling the bars on Ebay).It did not show up in the recent Twixmini-mix bag, which may or may not be anindicator of future releases.

HUGO PICKSby divers sundry hands —

by Johnny Carruthers[originally at

http://purpleranger.livejournal.com]

The final ballot for this year’s HugoAwards has been out for a couple of monthsnow. I thought it was time to post my annualpicks for the Hugo Awards.

I’ve been making my picks known for afew years now, in various fora. This, in spiteof the fact that my picks are right only aboutone third of time. I’ve joked once or twicethat announcing my picks for the Hugos is thekiss of death for those picks. If I reallythought that was the case, I would probablyannounce as my picks the nominee that I leastwanted to win, and see if that had any effect.

Okay, my success rate at picking thewinners isn’t all that great. That won’t stopme from announcing my picks. I have waytoo much fun doing this. So without further

ado, here are my choices for this year.

2006 HUGO AWARDS:Best Novel: There is rarely any method to mymadness when it comes to making my picks.Most of the time, it’s the nominee that I likebest. Other times, when I’m not familiar withall of the nominees in a category, I may makea pick purely on a gut feeling. This time, it’sa gut feeling.My Pick: Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

Best Novella: I wouldn’t call this a gutfeeling, but one of the nominees won theNebula Award in this category a few weeksago. I suspect this might be one of thoseinstances where the Hugo and Nebula votersthink alike.My Pick: “Magic For Beginners” by KellyLink

Best Novelette: Easy choice on this one. Ihad to go with the nominee who had the brasscojones to lift the title from one of IsaacAsimov’s best-known works. For that matter,the title was originally used by Otto Binder,and both Asimov’s anthology and Binder’sstory are fondly remembered by long-timereaders. Let’s see if Doctorow’s story will beequally fondly remembered years from now.My Pick: “I, Robot” by Cory Doctorow

Best Short Story: Sometimes it’s the storythat gets you, sometimes it’s the title. Thistime, it’s the title.My Pick: “The Clockwork Atom Bomb” byDominic Green

Best Related Book: I saw my pick in thiscategory in my local library, and I havechecked it out several times in the past fewmonths. Yes, I think it’s a rather fascinatingtome. Sooner or later, I’m going to have tobreak down and purchase my own copy. (Thiswas also the only one of my nominations inthis category to make the final ballot, so it’san easy choice.)My Pick: Science Fiction Quotations byGary Westfahl

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form:I’m faced with a tough choice here, becauseALL of the nominees are not just good,they’re damn good. This time, it’s another gutfeeling.

I am hoping that this year won’t see thestart of a trend repeating from a few years

Alexiad August 2006 Page 15

back. When the Lord of the Rings movieswere on the Hugo ballot a few years ago, I gotthe impression that some voters went,“Ooooh! Tolkien! LOTR!” and didn’t evenlook at any of the other nominees in thecategory. I also think that since Peter Jacksonfelt that he was making one really, really longmovie (instead of three merely long movies),LOTR should only have been eligible once,after the last installment had been released. Ina similar vein, I hope that the Hugo voters thisyear will not automatically go, “Ooooh!Narnia!” and ignore any of the othernominees.My Pick: Serenity

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form:Now that Doctor Who has made a comeback,I would really like to see it win a Hugo. Butwith three different episodes on this year’sballot, I don’t know if this will be the year.

I also noticed the continuation of a ratherdisturbing trend – the inclusion of (for lack ofa better term) a frivolous nominee. I suspectthat the appearance of these frivolousnominees is the work of some fans who arestill upset over The Split in the BDP categorya few years ago. I have no hard evidence, butthis seems like their way of showing theirdislike for The Split by nominating somethingthat really shouldn’t be on the ballot.

My Pick: “Dalek” — Doctor Who

Best Professional Editor: I’m going to startsounding like a broken record here, so ifyou’ve heard this before, you can skip to thenext category. How many times has Dr.Schmidt been nominated in this category? Ifind it hard to believe that he has not beenTHE best at least once in all that time. I’mreally hoping that this is finally the year thathe wins the Hugo.

Come on, even Susan Lucci finally wonher Emmy (after what, 17 tries?). Maybe ifDr. Schmidt finally does win this year, theappropriate presenter should be Ms. Lucci.My Pick: Stanley Schmidt

Best Professional Artist: As always, both ofthe artist categories are going to be toughpicks. I think it will come down to a flip ofthe dice, a roll of the coin.My Pick: Donato Giancola

Best Semiprozine: I wasn’t too surprisedwhen one of the British nominees won lastyear, given the site. It would be nice to see

someone other than Science Fiction’s WorstDressed Sentient Being (aka Charles Brown)walking up to receive the award in thiscategory. (I don’t have anything againstLocus personally; I just feel that it should notautomatically be the winner in this categoryevery year.)My Pick: Emerald City

Best Fanzine: It would be so much easier ifone of the fanzines which I nominated medthe final ballot. At least I could say somethinglike, “I’m going with the only one of myno m ina tio ns to m ake the b a l lo t.”Unfortunately, I can’t do that this year, so itmay come down to another random choice.My Pick: Challenger

Best Fan Writer: Okay, here’s my annualrant on the subject. There is no way that DaveLangford has been the best in this categoryevery year since 1989. No one is that good —not even Harlan Ellison. If the voters can’teven consider voting for someone else in thiscategory, then it is so stagnant that thecategory needs to be eliminated.

I was a little surprised when three of mynominees made the final ballot. Of course,that makes who gets my #1 vote a littledifficult, but I think I will go with someonewho should have been on the final ballotmuch more often than he has been.My Pick: John Hertz

Best Fan Artist: See my earlier comments inBest Professional Artist. They hold true forthis category as well.My Pick: Teddy Harvia

John W. Campbell Award for Best NewWriter: I usually don’t make a pick for thisaward, because I’m usually unfamiliar withthe nominees. This year, though, one of thenominees is also a nominee for the BestNovel award. Somehow, I suspect that mightgive him the inside edge.My Pick: John Scalzi

As usual, it will be interesting to see howclose I come to picking the winners. I think Igot four correct last year. I’m hoping for atleast five this year.

by Milt Stevens

Best Novel1. Accelerando by Charles Stross

2. Old Man’s War by John Scalzi3. A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin4. Learning the World by Ken MacLeod5. Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

Stross is the master of technobabble andcan be counted on for a totally screwy story.I like totally screwy stories. There are anawful lot of ideas in Accelerando, and someof them may even be real. I’m not really surewhich ones those might be.

Even though I ranked the Scalzi novelsecond, I thought it was excellent. When youthink of novels about interstellar war youthink of Starship Troopers and Forever War.Scalzi’s novel is different from either of thosenovels. I certainly voted for Scalzi for theCampbell Award.

Best Novella1. “Inside Job” by Connie Willis2. “The Little Goddess” by Ian McDonald3. “Magic for Beginners” by Kelly Link4. “Burn” by James Patrick Kelley5. “Identity Theft” by Robert J. Sawyer

The idea behind the Willis story is funnierthe more you think about it. Two sceptics areso intent on debunking spiritualists that theyare even willing to channel the spirit of afamous sceptic to do it. Right.

Best Novelette1. “Two Hearts” by Peter S. Beagle2. “The Calorie Man” by Paolo Bacigalupi3. “The King of Where-I-Go” by Howard

Waldrop4. “I, Robot” by Cory Doctorow5. “TelePresence” by Michael A. Burstein

The story by Peter Beagle is a movingstory. It’s the clear winner.

Best Short Story1. “Tk’tk’tk” by David D. Levine2. “The Clockwork Atom Bomb” by

Dominic Green3. “Singing My Sister Down” by Margo

Lanigan4. “Down Memory Lane” Mike Resnick5. “Seventy-Five Years” by Michael A.

Burstein

David Levine is turning out to be a ratherimpressive writer. I liked “Tale of the GoldenEagle,” and I like his story this year too.

by Tom Veal

( I ’ v e s u m m a r i z e d T o m ’ srecommendations for reasons of space,since he discussed every nominee atsome length. For his pointed andinformative commentary in full, checkout his blog, which is at:http://stromata.typepad.com/stromata_blog/

— JTM)Best Novel1. Learning the World by Ken MacLeod2. Old Man’s War by John Scalzi3. Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

(Unable to finish: A Feast for Crows byGeorge R. R. Martin and Accelerando byCharles S. Stross)

Best Novella1. “Burn” by James Patrick Kelly2. “Inside Job” by Connie Willis3. “The Little Goddess” by Ian MacDonald4. “Magic for Beginners” by Kelly Link5. “Identity Theft” by Robert J. Sawyer

Best Novelette1. “The Calorie Man” by Paolo Bacigalupi2. “Two Hearts” by Peter S. Beagle3. “I, Robot” by Cory Doctorow4. “The King of Where-I-Go” by Howard

Waldrop5. “TelePresence” by Michael Burstein

SEIUN AWARDS[From Trufen.net]

Best Translated NovelDiaspora by Greg Egan

Best Translated Short Story“The Human Front” by Ken MacLeod

PRIX AURORA AWARDSReported by Lloyd Penney a rapporté

Best Long-Form Work in English/Meilleurlivre en anglais

Cagebird, Karin Lowachee (Warner Aspect,Apr/2005)

Meilleur livre en francais/Best Long-FormWork in French

Alégracia et le Serpent d’Argent, DominicBellavance (Les Six Brumes)

B e s t S h o r t - F o r m W o r k i nEnglish/Meilleure nouvelle en anglais

“Tra nsu b stan tia tio n ” , D e rw in M a k

Page 16 August 2006 Alexiad

(Northwest Passages: A CascadianAnthology, Windstorm Creative)

Meilleure nouvelle en francais/BestShort-Form Work in French

“Montréal: trois uchronies”, Alain Ducharme(Solaris 155)

Best Work in English (Other)/Meilleurouvrage en anglais (Autre)

Tesseracts Nine: New Canadian SpeculativeFiction, Nalo Hopkinson and GeoffRyman, editors (Edge Publishing,July/2005)

Meilleur ouvrage en francais (Autre)/BestWork in French (Other)

S o l a r i s , r é d . J o ë l C h a m p e t i e r(www.revue-solaris.com)

Artistic Achievement — Accomplissementartistique

Lar deSouza [www.lartist.com]Fan Achievement (Publication) —

Accomplissement fanique (Publication)The Royal Swiss Navy Gazette, Garth

S p e n c e r , e d .(www.eFanzines.com/RSNG)

Fan Achievement (Organizational) —A c c o m p l i s s e m e n t f a n i q u e(Organisation)

Barbara Schofield (TT Masquerade)F a n A c h i e v e m e n t ( O t h e r ) —

Accomplissement fanique (autre)U r b a n T a p e s t r y , f i l k s i n g i n g

[www.urbantapestry.org]

Well done all, and there are pointytrophies with some new names on them,which is good to see.

FANZINES

and Furthermore . . . #7 May 25, 2006, #8June 18, 2006, #9 June 27, 2006, #10 July5, 2006, #11 July 19, 2006, #12 August 1,2006John Purcell, 3744 Marielene Circle,College Station, TX 77845-3926 USAj_purcell54@yahoo.comhttp://www.efanzines.com

Beyond Bree June 2006, July 2006Nancy Martsch, Post Office Box 55372,Sherman Oaks, CA 91413-5372 USAbeyondbree@yahoo.comNot available for The Usual; $12/year,$15 in envelope or overseas.

Hey, it has some of Paul’sdrawings!

*brg* 46 June 2006Bruce Gillespie, 8 Howard Street,Greensborough, VIC 3088 AUSTRALIAgandc@mira.net

eI # 27 August 2006Earl Kemp, Post Office Box 6642,Kingman, AZ 86402-6642 USAearlkemp@citlink.nethttp://www.efanzines.com

In a Prior Lifetime #12 June 2006, #13 July2006John Purcell, 3744 Marielene Circle,College Station, TX 77845-3926 USAj_purcell54@yahoo.comhttp://www.efanzines.com

The Knarley Knews #118 June 2006Henry & Letha Welch, 1525 16th Avenue,Grafton, WI 53024-2017 USAwelch@msoe.eduhttp://www.msoe.edu/~welch/tkk.html

MT Void V. 24 #49 June 2, 2006 — V. 25 #4July 28, 2006Mark and Evelyn Leeper, 80 LakeridgeDrive, Matawan, NJ 07747-3839 USAeleeper@optonline.netmleeper@optonline.nethttp://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper

Nice Distinctions #14 June 2006Arthur L. Hlavaty, 206 Valentine Street,Yonkers, NY 10704-4861 USAhlavaty@panix.comhttp://www.maroney.org/hlavaty/http://www.efanzines.com

Opuntia # 61.1 June 2006, #61.3 July 2006,#61.5 Late July 2006Dale Speirs, Box 6830, Calgary, AlbertaT2P 2E7 CANADA

Peregrine Nations V. 6 #1 April 2006Jan G. Stinson, P. O. Box 248, Eastlake,MI 49626-0248 USAtropicsf@earthlink.nethttp://www.efanzines.com

Hey, it has some of Paul’sdrawings! What do you mean I saidthis before?

Pixel #3 July 2006, #4 August 2006

David Burton, 5227 Emma Drive,Lawrence, IN 46236-2742 USAcatchpenny@mw.nethttp://www.efanzines.com

Vanamonde # 638-647John Hertz, 236 S. Coronado Street, No.409, Los Angeles, CA 90057-1456 USA

Visions of Paradise #106Robert Michael Sabella, 24 Cedar ManorCourt, Budd Lake, NJ 07828-1023 USAbsabella@optonline.nethttp://www.efanzines.comhttp://visionsofparadise.blogspot.com

The Zine Dump #12Guy H. Lillian III, 8700 Millicent Way#150, Shreveport, LA 71115-2264 USAghliii@yahoo.comhttp://www.challzine.net

CON NEWS

According to various reports collected byTom Veal and others, a bid committee hasbeen formed to bid for a Seattle in 2011WorldCon. Meanwhile, the DC in 2011Committee has apparently decided to defertheir bid to 2012 because of problems withtheir site (a lack of nearby hotels). WhetherDC in 2011, er 2012 will have to face off withSan Digeo, er Diego in 2012 remains to beseen.

Alexiad August 2006 Page 17

Letters, we get letters

From: John Hertz June 3, 2006236 S. Coronado Street, No. 409, LosAngeles, CA 90057-1456 USABest Fan Writer Hugo Nominee

Robert Conquest wrote decent s-f poetrytoo, see Vanamonde 658.

Ã Ë ÀÑ Â À É Ò Å Ç À × À Ð À Ç À*

ÏÐÅÄÑÅÄÀÒÅËÀ!*Curiously, he’s the “Tsar”, not the

“King”. So was Boris. So was Krum.

I had to ask him to write“Vote for the Tsar forPresident!” in Bulgarian. Alas,he’s not running.

July 17, 2006

Gosh, thanks for the recommendation.Sheryl Birkhead is right about the Rotsler

Award. There’s already a Best Fan ArtistHugo. It does not require voting only on thepast year’s work; but the Rotsler is given forlong-time wonder-working. We certainlyhope some at least of the more recent starswill keep twinkling.

About time capsules, remember themuseum in Niven & Pournelle’s The Mote inGod’s Eye. Art classics are also a kind of“time capsule”. Consider Dante — or Bach— or Hiroshige.

From: Janine G. Stinson June 9, 2006Post Office Box 248, Eastlake, MI49626-0248 USAtropicsf@earthlink.net

Hi Joe and Lisa / Hi Lisa and Joe (equalopportunity greeting), This is, sadly,becoming a habit, missing the editorialdeadline of your fanzine. Am I channeling

Douglas Adams? Re: Regina Stinson, no relation.Sheryl Birkhead, re: circus peanuts, they’r

orange, firmer than marshmallows, and docontain gelatin. Say it with me: oh, foo!

Jeff Boman: I’ve read some of MistyLackey’s Valdemar novels, but prefer herDiana Tregarde series (a sort of psychicdetective character). Re: comics, have youseen the Doc Samson limited series (5 ishestotal) that Marvel is doing now, with Paul DiFilippo writing the story? I thot they werevery cool (I’ve seen the first two, courtesy ofPaul). The way Doc is drawn reminds me of(forgive me if I get the name wrong, I’mrelying on memory here) Barry Smith’sConan, back in the day. I really liked *those*Conan comics.

As for Lackey’s RiverCon GoH turn, Joe,is that con the reason she no longer attendscons (or does so very rarely)?

And the sound of the gripping hand oughtto bear a resemblance to fyunch*click*, Ithink. <g>

Don’t ask Steve Francis (co-chair of the late lamentedRiverCon) about MercedesLackey. He gets the twitches. Ihad understood that herreticence towards interactingwith fans in general stemmedfrom bad experiences with a fanof the Diana Tregarde serieswho failed to note that it wasonly a story. Da Vinci CodeSyndrome?

— JTM

From: Darrell Schweitzer June 19, 20066644 Rutland Street, Philadelphia, PA19149-2128 USAdarrells@comcast.net

Thanks for the new Alexiad. Ontheological matters, I think Alexis Gilliland’sexplanation of the Gospel of Judas is a trifleover-elaborate. The idea that Judas did it onChrist’s instructions smooths out a major kinkin Christian theology, i.e. the question of whyJudas is a bad guy and deserves to be groundeternally in Satan’s jaws, as described byDante. If the crucifixion of Christ wasrequired as part of the Divine Plan, and God,who is all knowing, realized this at theBeginning of Time, then wasn’t Judas justdoing his bit to carry out the Plan? It was a

dirty job, but somebody had to do it. God,when he created Judas, knew perfectly wellthat Judas would do this, and therefore knewthat the infant Judas would grow up to betrayChrist, commit suicide, and be damned. Thissort of thing leads you down the slipperyslope of Predetermination and other heresies. . . .

Catholics counter this with Free Will, i.e.the idea that we are given Free Will so thatwe may freely choose Good. That is onlypossible if it is also possible to choose evil.This may cause collateral damage in damnedsouls, but this is the only way for the choiceof Goodness to mean anything. ThereforeGod just looked out for a prospective damnedsoul, knowing that Judas would freely chooseto betray Christ, and took advantage of this.Nothing goes to waste with an all-knowingGod.

But the Gospel of Judas avoids suchacrobatics. It’s a lot more straightforward.Judas is a necessary cog in the machine. He isnot evil. He presumably went to Heaven, evenif he got a bad rap on Earth.

The Church will of course ignore it. Thisis hardly the first or last of the apocryphalGospels. No need for a cover-up or somevast, Da Vinci Code style conspiracy. Just afew shrugs and dismissive comments on theevening news, and a couple weeks later noone cares anymore.

Which does raise the burning question ofour time: why haven’t more people, despitethe hype, realized exactly how silly The DaVinci Code is?

I saw the movie, despite the warnings ofwell-meaning friends. My conclusion was“This isn’t as good as North by Northwest.Hitchcock could have done it in an hour anda half, better, and he wouldn’t have taken theMcGuffin so seriously.” It IS basically aninferior rendition of the Hitchcock formula ofthe innocent who finds himself accused of acrime and involved in a conspiracy he doesn’tunderstand, then chased through exotic placeswhile trying to find someone he can trust.Today, Tom Hanks. 50 years ago, Cary Grant.

But let’s have a look at that McGuffin. Wewill overlook the stretch of the Long Arm ofCoincidence that Sophie, who is assigned tohelp the Hanks character solve the murder,just happens to be the “sole directdescendant” of Jesus Christ.

Consider the claim itself. Jesus marriedMary Magdalene and had a daughter by her.The daughter survives. She has, let us say,

three children. Now there are three equallydescended grandchildren of Christ. These,between them, let us say, manage to produceeight great-grandchildren who live toreproduce. These then, let us just estimateconservatively, produce sixteen great-greatgrandchildren, all of whom breed “true.”There is no statement that only the firstborn isit, and if we’re talking of the “purity of thebloodline,” then a younger sibling has just aspure a bloodline as an older one.

We will also overlook the obviousimplication that whatever was special in thatbloodline must have diluted awfully fast,because the line was transmitted, we are told,through the Merovingian house of Gaul — abunch of barbarians, mediocrities, andvegetables, the last useless representative ofwhich was deposed by Pepin the Short withpermission from (exquisite irony here), theRoman pope.

Never mind that. Collateral lines shouldbe spreading all over the place like fracturelines in a broken windshield. By the 21stcentury, all of western Europe and much ofthe Mediterranean world would be equallydescended from Christ and Mary M.,including, and not restricted to, the currentpope, the Hanks character, the entiremembership of Opus Dei, the masochisticmonk, the entire French police force, Sophie,and the hooker down the street. It is clear thatdescendants of Christ have siblings. Sophiehad a brother, before he was convenientlykilled in a car crash.

If you figure backwards, that you had twop a re n ts , fo u r g ra nd -p a ren ts , e ig h tgreat-grandparents, etc. and take that backabout a thousand years, the members of yourfamily alone should outnumber the entirepopulation of the Earth. So, where are all themissing people? I think Dan Brown wouldhave us believe that Opus Dei killed them all,because they were the descendants of Christ.That’s some hardworking conspiracy!

We might also point out that prior to theinvention of DNA testing, there would be noway to prove that anybody is descended fromMary Magdalene. So they find this medievalcrypt with some old bones in it. Whose arethey? How could anybody, over the centuries,know?

Let us suppose modern scientistsdetermine that the woman in the cryptactually IS a remote ancestor of Sophie (andhalf the population of Europe). How can theyprove who the father of the line was? The

Page 18 August 2006 Alexiad

DNA of God is not available for study. Evenif you got a sample from the Shroud of Turin,and that somehow proved to be old enough,that would not prove that the man on theshroud was really Christ. I don’t think thereare any more relics of the Blood of theCircumcision around anymore, much less theHoly Foreskin. It would take a miracle. If the“last living descendant” really could walk onwater (which, it is explicitly shown, shecannot) then the Church might havesomething to worry about.

Otherwise, despite the fact this woman hasno motivation to do so, let us say she goespublic and announces, “I am the lastdescendant of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.The Catholic Church is a lie.”

Reporters snicker. The Vatican saysshrugs it off, or, if it is really subtle, producesrival claimants who have obviously come outof mental hospitals, showing that there’s atleast one in every looney-bin. Late-night talkshow hosts make a few jokes. There is a skiton Saturday Night Live.

Two weeks later it is old news andeverybody forgets.

As I said, Hitchcock could have done a lotbetter. That anyone has taken this sillyfarrago seriously is a tribute to theworld-class promotional campaign The DaVinci Code has received, and evidence thatthe public is not capable of thinking verydeeply.

That part of The Da VinciCode is based on Holy Blood, HolyGrail. See Lee Gilliland’s analysisof that. Michel Lafosse, anotherforger (see above), also claims heis descended from Jesus andMary Magdalene. The SinisterConspirators of the Vaticanwouldn’t have to bother to golooking for “rival claimants”;those would come boiling out ofthe woodwork! See underKathleen McGowan (who will nodoubt say, “Why are you lookingunder me?”).

—JTM

From: Taral Wayne June 20, 2006254 Dunn Avenue Apt. 2111,Toronto, ON M6K 1S6 CANADAtaralwayne@3web.net

Got the latest ish and thought I should

move my lazy ass to acknowledge it. I don’t have much to say, but the item

about finding a time-vault in Naples caughtmy eye. Actually, a library has been found,but last I heard it was still mostlyunexcavated, and it’s unclear whether there’smuch to be found there. Whatever scrollsmight have been in the wealthy insula’sowner could have been carbonized beyondlegibility. Another possibility is that thelibrary may contain nothing but manuscriptswe know well already.

L. Calpurnius Piso Caesonius,Julius Caesar’s father-in-law, theguy who owned the villa atHerculaneum, was a very avidEpicurean and the place containsa library of (otherwise lost)obscure Epicurean books. Thetexts can be read with infraredimaging.

As if some catastrophe overwhelmed NewYork and a thousand years later someone’slibrary was found intact in a basement,freakishly preserved. What would the futureliterary historian likely find?

Probably the same tiresome old StephenKing, Tom Clancy, Anne Rice, Tom Wolfe,Elmore Leonard, at the higher end of theliterary spectrum perhaps Steinbeck, Salinger,maybe Mark Twain, perhaps even a littleRaymond Chandler. There might be the oddlost work by one of these worthies. The restwould likely be junk best sellers or B-listfiction that only scholars would find interestin.

But it might be worse. It might be thelibrary of a fan. Imagine finding a treasuretrove of Pohl, Anderson, Ballard, Heinlein,Bester, Del Rey, Delany, Le Guin, andEllison, probably none of which anyone willhave heard of, a thousand years from now.What possible sense could they make of it?

They should be grateful forthis insight into “A Way of Life”just off the Bloch . . .

I’m reminded of the storyabout the time scoop thatbrought back a man from thefuture. He was an ordinary sortwho didn’t have any idea of thesocial issues of his day or theworld situation but he did knowwhat was on the news; that two

actors had reconciled or split upor something like that.

— JTM

Nice Schirm illos. I’ve always likedMarc’s work, and don’t think I need justifymy high opinion on a long standing, fruitfulfriendship. About the only thing you can sayto the revelation he’s never won a Hugo (orthat Steve Stiles or Dan Steffan have neverwon Hugos for their fanart) is that Hugosmust be consolation prizes for runners-up.The best are too good to be widely recognizedfor it, QED.

From: Steven H Silver June 20, 2006707 Sapling Lane, Deerfield, IL60015-3969 USAshsilver@att.netBest Fan Writer Hugo Nominee

I generally don’t comment on reviews, butI did want to make a note on yourcommentary on Ron Goulart’s Grouchoseries. I read the first one, Groucho Marx,Master Detective, when it first came out andwas underwhelmed. My problem with it wasthat Goulart’s representation of Grouchowasn’t that of the man, but rather of thecharacter he portrayed on the screen. Now,granted, from all reports Groucho becamemore and more like that character as he grewolder, but in the time frame these novels areset, there was a distinction between Grouchothe private individual, and Groucho theshowman (see Stefan Kanfer’s Groucho,Simon Louvish’s Monkey Business, and anyof the books written by Groucho or hiscollections of letters). I think I may have readthe second book in the series before giving upon it entirely.

As it happens, I had just finished watchingthe excellent documentary “The MarxBrothers in a Nutshell” and Gabe Kaplan’sversion of “Groucho: A Life in Review”when I read your commentary (I also justwatched “Duck Soup” with my eight yearold). I’ve also been working on an alternatehistory in which the eldest Marx Brother,Manfred, does not die in infancy and goes onto perform in the act (Hummo, Chico, Harpo,Gummo, and Zeppo) and Julius takes acompletely different turn. Although you cansee some of the showman Groucho in Julius’scharacter, he isn’t the Groucho of the films asportrayed in Goulart’s books (and my versionof this ah is very different than what you did

a few years ago).I’ll see you at Conglomeration.

Odd, because I’ve also readLove, Groucho (his letters to hisalcoholic daughter), and HectorArce’s Groucho, as well as theother collections, not to mentionLeo Rosten’s essay on him, and itseemed to me that he would actlike that in real life.

“What I did” was to giveManfred Marx all the acting, andthe other brothers went variousways. Julius, for example,became a doctor, and then afamous fannish letterhack,instead of becoming Groucho. The guys on the DuckList (MarxBrothers email list) loved it.

— JTM

From: Joy V. Smith June 23, 20068925 Selph Road, Lakeland, FL33810-0341 USAPagadan@aol.com

http://journals.aol.com/pagadan/JoysJournal/

Thanks much for all the reviews. Ihaven’t read Martin’s Dying of the Light, butI enjoyed Tuf Voyaging, which I kept. (It waspeople praising it and talking about the catsthat enticed me to try it.) I no longer thinkexotic strange men are romantic the way I didwhen I was young and foolish and readromantic novels.

I don’t see any point in waiting to look attime capsules. Open them, enjoy them,rewrap them, and maybe add something —with provenance. Should we dump the stuffthat disintegrated? I like the idea of ourposterity tracking down Voyager.

Speaking of the complex backgrounds ofgaming, I read something recently — and Iwish I could remember where — thatcomputer and other games teach more thanmanual dexterity (always a flawed argument,I thought) to kids. The author pointed outthat kids have to remember characters,abilities, etc.; he also said that TV showstoday require a lot more concentration thanearly TV dramas. There are a lot moresubplots and long-running story arcs.

I wasn’t aware of the Groucho Marxmysteries, though I’ve seen a number ofexamples of new writers recycling oldcharacters. The Empress of India: A

Alexiad August 2006 Page 19

Professor Moriarty Novel sounds interesting,btw. As does The Ghost Brigades, a neweridea.

One Nation Under Therapy is scary. Isaw in an advice column today that someonesuggested drugging kids before taking themon planes so they’d be quiet . . . Anotherfrightening book is The True Stella Awards:Honoring Real Cases of Greedy Opportunists,Frivolous Lawsuits, and the Law Run Amok. I see these in the newspaper now and then; awhole bookful would be staggering. (I thinkI’ll curl up under the bed with a slurpie.)

Thanks to E.B. Frohvet for the article onthe coelacanth. It’d be fascinating to learn thebackground of the old silver model. Thankyou, Lisa, for the background on Barbaro; Idid see stories and some footage. I wasn’taware of the horses whose legs might be toothin. (Don’t ask me about German Shepherdsbeing bred into triangles . . .)

In his essay on thecoelacanth, Willy Ley mentions aguy who sent to the Smithsoniana fish scale he had bought in ashop in Florida from a guy talkingabout this odd fish he had allthese scales from. Some timelater they investigated their giftand discovered they had beensent a coelacanth scale — but bythen, the shop was gone and theoriginal buyer was untraceable.

LOCs. Thanks, Joe, for the info on thewireless computer card. (All my cables are ina tangle under the computer desk but againstthe wall and down a bit so that Xena doesn’tget caught in them when she lies down underit.) Brad W. Foster, I love Duffy’s angelwings! Btw, years ago our black and whiteManx walked along the front edge of the gasstove when a burner was on and singed hiswhiskers off. They grew back a differentcolor — either black to white or vice versa. Ican never remember. Lots more interesting, fun, and surprisingfacts in the letters, including vegetarianmarshmallows. Can you still toast them? (I’ve got to get a firepit one of these days.) Intriguing cross with Morpheus and thePrisoner on the last page.

From: Alexis A. Gilliland June 23, 20064030 8 Street South, Arlington, VAth

22204-1552 USA

Thank you for Alexiad #5.3, which arrivedon the summer solstice shortly after theelectrician replaced the dimmer switch for thedining room light. In other local news, whenwe moved here in 1974, a crew of three menmoved Dolly’s six foot baby grand piano intothe basement where they reassembled it in thecomer. Long time passing my nephew David,the musician, expressed an interest in herpiano — eventually, that is, when he hadsome place to put it. Well, nobody wasplaying it, so I said sure, why not? First thingyou know, David is getting married to afellow musician, and then he and she arebuying a condo in Minneapolis — a condowith room for the piano. So he called to makesure the deal was still on, and I said yes. Afterclosing on the condo he called back to let meknow that Modern Piano Moving would becoming by very shortly to pick it up. ThenMPM called to say they would be by at 9 AMThursday, and on the appointed day I was upand waiting. When they hadn’t shown by 9:30I called their cell number, and the truck hadbeen diverted to Philadelphia, but theyshowed up about 12 hours later. Two of them.I won’t say they were puny exactly, but it hadbeen a long day and they looked at that bigold piano, and decided they needed to comeback with reinforcements. Realsoonnow theysaid, but hey, it’s only been a week or so sofar, and after mumble mumble years there’sno hurry.

This year’s Balticon went back to theHunt Valley Inn, and was the best Balticon inseveral years, with a number of excellentparties on Saturday night. Alas, I came downwith a cold on Monday morning, whichbecame so bad that I called my doctor thefollowing Wednesday for an appointment thatFriday, when I learned I had bronchitis. Heprescribed an antibiotic, five pills @$17.50each, which took care of the bronchitis as thecold went away in a timely fashion. I don’tremember the last time I went to see thedoctor because I was merely sick. (Breakingmy ankle back in 1984 doesn’t count.)

You ask: “Where are the newconrunners?” Mike Pederson & Co. put onRavencon — a first time convention — downin Richmond back in April, and they did anexcellent job. Truth in advertising: Lee and Iwere fan guests of honor (More truth: In theprogram book Mike wrote that he had invitedLee, who “modestly” assumed that she and Iwere to be co-guests of honor, so that hewound up stuck with me.) No matter,

Ravencon was the most enjoyable conventionI’ve been to in a long time and we’re lookingforward to going back.

I’m thinking that becausearound here, RiverCon has beenreplaced by ConGlomeration,which has become more and moregaming oriented, and in Nashville,Kubla Khan/Parthekhan andXanadu have been replaced byHypericon, which seems to bemore media and games oriented. Your comments below about thedecline of magazines also apply, Ithink.

In “The Joy Of High Tech” RodfordEdmiston discusses sword making, andmentions Damascus blades. A recent article inThe American Scientist describes how themaking of damascene steel has beenrediscovered. Historically, those swords wereforged from iron billets imported from onemine in India, and when that mine wasexhausted, similar iron billets from othermines didn’t produce damascene steel, despitethe best efforts of the Arab swordsmiths, andthe art was eventually lost. It turns out that afew ppm of chromium contained in the ironfrom the original mine had a wetting effect inthe iron carbide that the forging processproduced in the steel being worked, so thatthe wavy lines of damascene (or patterned)steel appeared in situ, as if by magic. Bycontrast, the Japanese swordsmiths tooklayers of wrought iron and high carbon steeland welded them together, with theempirically correct number of foldings toensure a sword with alternating micro layersof hard and tough steel. A well understoodtechnique that was never lost, and is beingpracticed to this day, albeit for the collectorrather than the working samurai.

Johnny Carruthers notes that AmazingStories has expired for the umpteenth timeand wonders if it could be revived once more,possibly by Dell Publishing. Maybe, butprobably not. The sales figures published forSF magazines in Locus show a generaldownward trend, reflecting the fact thatreading is no longer required to get one’s fixof pulpish action adventure. Far from beingable to rescue Amazing, Dell has to worryabout the survival of Asimov’s and Analogwhose sales have precipitously declined overthe last two or three decades. Why?

The old pharts are dying out and the youthare watching TV or movies, or DVDs of thesame, and the market for text is accordinglydiminished. Indeed, “Must Read SF” nolonger exists except in the zombified form ofcollege reading lists. “Wanna Read SF” — allthose media related paperbacks — are therefor an audience which lusts after more of themedia product but is willing to accept theinferior print version of the product whentheir fix isn’t available in media form.Originality has become a sales inhibitingquality, and after 80 years printed sciencefiction — which emphasized originality — isobsolete. Amazing just went extinct faster andmore often than Analog or Asimov’s.

Alas that The Da Vinci Code should turnout to be an ineptly researched thriller. Joe’sobservation that Dan Brown based TDVC ona book called Holy Blood, Holy Grail whichin turn took at face value the “Priory of Sion,”a fraud perpetrated by Pierre Plantard is prettymuch on the money as far as he took it. Forher sins, Lee had independently done someresearch on Plantard on one of her historicalforums, and has very kindly outlined herfindings in a separate attachment.

Given that TDVC is pretty muchcomposed out of the whole cloth and void ofany connection with real history, how comethe boek was able to catch the wave of thezeitgeist and achieve Harry Potteresquesuccess? My guess is that wave in questionconsisted of a substantial portion ofChristianity being open to a reinterpretationof the role of Mary Magdalene. This is not anew thing; The Gospel of Mary Magdaleneput her on a level with the Apostle Peter, butthe editing and revisions of the NewTestament greatly diminished her importance,in keeping with the misogyny of the earlyChurch fathers. Might the contemporarycongregation be receptive to a more importantMagdalene? Such enhanced receptivity isunlikely to revise the Gospels, but might havesome influence on the books that getpublished and the movies that get made.

Which is why the woman inthe action movie is always thegreatest fighter. Blushing gentleflowers who have spent theirentire lives as postulants inconvents turn out to be first-rate kickboxers, keen-eyedshots, and deadly swordfighters. It is fantasy, after all.

Page 20 August 2006 Alexiad

Richard Dengrove disagrees with myphilosophical take on considering the Bible— what it said and how it came to say it —feeling that the Bible’s proper use is to get areligious high. Well, as Karl Marx said:“Religion is the opium of the people.” Howdoes Dengrove feel about The Da Vinci Code which seems to have given a lot of people arelated sort of religious high? *** Sigh. I’mglad that the banning of Ted White fromChez Gilliland gave Rodney Leighton hisyear’s best laugh. *** Also recalling lastfall’s fan feud in WSFA, Martin MorseWooster reports that the losing of it has made Keith Lynch “almost tolerable” in PRSFS.You’re welcome, Martin, even if the welfareof PRSFS wasn’t exactly what Lee and I hadin mind at the time. It is true that WSFA andPRSFS have rather different clubpersonalities, with very little overlap inmembership, and this has always been thecase. When Lee was divorcing herthen-husband Jerry Uba, the divorcesettlement specified that Lee would getWSFA while Jerry would get PRSFS. ***Milt Stevens is right about Rotsler, and Iremembered Bill’s second Hugo in ‘96 butnot why he got it, probably because I thoughtretro Hugos were a dumb idea. Which takesnothing away from Bill, who was a class act.*** Generally I am in agreement with George Price about the female Gor fans,though in the day I merely found submissivewomen boring. The one overtly submissivelady I did have a chance to observe over timewas passive-aggressive, with a serious meanstreak. A Gorean slave girl wannabe? Well,no, the lady probably would have liked to bea Japanese mother in law. *** Alas thatTrinlay Khadro’s uncle failed to make a will,although I suppose the effort to do so musthave seemed like admitting he was going todie. However, a 2/5 share is better thannothing.

I suspect that many of thekajira wannabes have that sortof desire where they want to beboth dominated and in control.

— JTM

June 29, 2006

Modern Piano Movers came back, brightand early in the morning, but with only twoguys. They came back with three aftersupper, and moved the piano out. The two

guys were able to do most of it, but the thirdguy was necessary to move that big old pianoup the five steps leading out of the basement.

And after 32 years, the piano is out of thehouse.

From: E. B. Frohvet June 21, 20064716 Dorsey Hall Drive #506, EllicottCity MD 21042-5988 USA

The Veterans Administration helpfullyallowed computer records containing basicidentifying information (names, birthdates,Social Security numbers) of millions ofveterans, to be stolen. This information isnow being sold wholesale to identity thieveson the Internet. My bank says not to worry . .. Any relatives or friends who are vets (theonly other vets I know in fandom are MiltStevens and Janine Stinson) are encouraged tocheck with their banks.

On a related topic, the Decline of LittrusyDepartment calls attention to this carefullyprinted patriotic sign in a local store: “Inobservation of Memorial Day, we will becolsed on May 29.” Shoot me now, just putthe pistol to my head . . .

Lyn McConchie says she was surprised atthe copy of Heinlein’s Children I arranged forher to receive. She was expecting somethingsmaller, more in the nature of a chapbook, butwas delighted to discover such a heftyvolume. I gave her your address in case shehad any detailed comments. My formal “bookreview” was passed on to Janine forPeregrine Nations. This is only the seventhtime in twenty-six issues that Alexiad hasarrived after the 15th of the month. Earliestarrival, the 8th (three times); latest, the 25th(once); typical, the 13th. Of course that hardlycompares to fanzines showing up nine monthsafter their nominal publication date, or goingtwo years between issues. Having set such ahigh standard of punctuality, you are thevictim of your own success: a week is seen asa real difference.

Regrettable as was the injury to theracehorse Barbaro, we should keep in mindthat racehorses are basically rich people’stoys, and exist primarily to separate thegullible from their money.

Let us not forget that they alsoprovide sportswriters with good copyand also allow very minor fannishwriters to inflict their obsession withthese “rich people’s toys” on

unsuspecting readers.— LTM

Your preceeding paragraphexplains the one before it. Wehad to get the results of theBelmont before we could go topress.

I was sorry to hear of the death of Gräfinvon Stauffenberg. Her husband was a truehero. (Contrary to the various disgustingforms of execution utilized by the Naziregime, Stauffenberg died in honorablesoldier fashion, before a firing squad.)

The True Stella Awards: There was ashort-lived series on NBC a few years agoabout an eccentric lawyer and his on-and-offgirlfriend. In one episode, a man complainedto the lawyer that he lost the clubchampionship because someone yelled whilehe was putting. Could he sue? And theattorney replied, “This is America. Anyonecan sue anyone for anything.” Well, there youare.

Umm, I believe Banana Wings was notthe FAAN Award winner. Read the editorial.A miscount, reminding one of the 1992Fanzine Hugo debacle (handled with graceunder pressure by George Laskowski).

But they were! From May 7to May 10. Read the colophon.

— JTM

I agree mostly with your Hugo choices,just so we know those people won’t get theawards; though I might have voted ClaireBrialey second for the Langford Award, andSteve Stiles first for Fan Artist.

Richard Dengrove: A teacher at a Baptistcollege was fired, because he said that whilethe Bible contains everything needed tounderstand God and attain salvation, itdoesnlt contain everything needed tounderstand the entire rest of the world. Theevidence indicates the climate of Labradorwas warmer in Viking times; and even nowwine grapes are grown successfully in upstateNew York, and into Canada.

Trinlay Khadro: There’s a word,“afterwit”, meaning knowledge obtained toolate to be any use. In view of this, I stronglysecond Trinlay’s idea that everyone shouldmake a will. Also, make sure your lawyer hasfiled the current one with the Register ofWills for your county. If it’s not on file, they

can’t use it! I also suggest a detailed list ofassets; bank accounts and insurance policiesidentified by number, family heirlooms, etc.

I never said the so-called “Confederates”were stupid. (Traitors yes, stupid . . . well,mostly no.) But I stand by my statement thatthe southern rebellion did not have themanufacturing capacity to produce millions ofrounds of modern 7.62 ammunition, and I forone would hate to fight a war importing myammunition from elsewhere via sailboat.

Robert Lichtman: Given the number ofthings on which you and I disagree, it’s goodto see you’re still speaking to me.

Dainis Bisenieks: I keep a pen on mynightstand to make corrections in publishedbooks. Recently I found a rather obvioustypo — in a book I had read at least threetimes. The most common errors involvemisuse of punctuation, especially quotationmarks.

Rod Smith: I’m sure Rod knows that thederivation for the musical form is secondary,after its first notable stars: Bill Monroe & TheBlue Grass Boys.

From: Brad W. Foster July 2, 2006P.O. Box 165246, Irving, TX 75016-5246 USAbwfoster@juno.comBest Fan Artist Hugo Nominee

I’d heard of the Groucho Marx mysterybooks. Actually, I’d head of -a- book, I hadno idea this had turned into a series. I’veenjoyed stuff from Goulart in the past, andthough your review isn’t the most glowing,does sound like something fun and light toread as a palate cleanser between heaviertomes.

I keep running across references to FrankReade Jr here and there as fun pulp stuff,even some that might have inspired JulesVerne. Some neat images on various websitesof steam-drive robots and huge airships. Gotto find some of this when I have the time . . .(yeah, right . . . ”time”.)

I read and enjoyed Inkheart, though it wasnot quite what I was expecting. Actuallyfound it interesting that it didn’t take the usualfantasy route of having the main characterstravel to a distant land, but instead everythingis set in this world. Quite nice.

Was a surprise to see my name in your“Handicapping the Hugos”. It’s been about adozen years since I last won, so I doubt it willhappen again, but nice to see someone thinks

Alexiad August 2006 Page 21

it could happen. As they say “it’s an honor tobe nominated”, since at least it shows peopleare noticing my work each year. My money,and my vote, would be on Steve Stiles, who isnot only long overdue for this, but, morefairly, has indeed had some fine workpublished this past year. These awards are notfor “someone we like, or think did stuff in thepast” but for work created in a specific year.And Steve did that for sure.

Speaking of awards, Janice asked aboutawards that carry a monetary award alongwith the recognition of winning. Well, there isindeed such a thing: the Rotsler Award.Created in 1997 by SCIFI (The SouthernCalifornia Institute for Fan Interests) to honorthe lifetime work of fanartists and thememory of uber fanartist William Rotsler. It’s not only a lovely plaque, but comes witha $300 check. Speaking of Stiles, he got thevery first one! Here’s the lineup so far:

1998: Steve Stiles1999: Grant Canfield2000: Arthur “Atom” Thomson2001: Brad W. Foster2002: Kurt Erichsen2003: Ray Nelson2004: Harry Bell2005: Marc Schirmeister

A great line up of names, and I’m veryproud to be associated with them all myself.(I wish we could track down Steve Fox, whocontributed so many hugely detailed, wildlyinventive pieces of artwork to zines in the 70sand 80s. Fantastic work, given to zines bigand small, and then he just seemed to vanish.Amazing talent.)

I wanted to find GrantCanfield, because he did acartoon of The Door IntoSummer that was just perfect —I had just done an article on thebook. But no luck.

— JTM

Back to work on the website, which isalmost . . . oh, just so close to beingsomething worth looking at!

From: Evelyn C. Leeper July 2, 200680 Lakeridge Drive, Matawan, NJ07747-3839 USAeleeper@optonline.nethttp://www.geocities.com/evelynleep

er

Re Janice Stinson’s comments that 1) theHugo Award should carry a monetary award,and/or 2) the Worldcon supportingmembership should be lowered to ten dollars:I hope she realizes that these are at bestmutually exclusive, and actually both fairlyimpractical.

Assuming one means to award somethingother than the cost of a latte, let’s start byassuming a $1000 prize to each winner. Given that there are thirteen categories for theHugo Award, that means a $13,000 line itemfor the Worldcon (assuming no ties or “NoAward”s). Since Worldcon membership isabout 5500, that means an *average* increaseof at least $2 for each membership fee. (Fora convention like Aussiecon 3, it would bemore like an increase of $10 per member.)

And as for decreasing the supportingmembership fee to $10, that amount wouldnot even cover the cost of printing andmailing all the materials to the member.

Re Trinlay Khadro’s advice about wills,signing all your artwork, etc.: I would addthat you should also make provision foranything you may have written or created,especially if you are a co-author with otherpeople or if you intend for it to go into thepublic domain. (A friend of ours had writtenor co-written some games, and after he died,no one had a clue as to who owned the rights,because no one knew whether he had anyfamily.)

Re Trinlay Khadro’s comment about thesalue to Harryhausen in King Kong: The“dino battle” was a salute to Willis O’Brien,who did the special effects for the originalKing Kong. Ray Harryhausen learned fromO’Brien; he worked under him on Mighty JoeYoung.

Re Joe’s response to Martin Wooster onTAFF: You [JTM] say, “air fare from Londonto the East Coast was down to £200. Is thisfund really necessary?” It may be £200 inMay, but what is it in August when the fanwants to fly to Worldcon? (Last year ourairfare from New York to London was $700each — considerably more than £200.) Plusfor a lot of fans £200 is a *lot* of money. Plus the airfare is not the only cost — thereare also hotel rooms, foods, and so on.

TAFF is descended from theWillis Fund. Back then, travelingto the States cost a lot moremoney than almost any fan had. But now, many fans have that

kind of money. This is an ideathat has done its duty and canretire with honors.

— JTM

Re Milt Stevens and The Science FictionReview, I was a reviewer for Delap’s ScienceFiction & Fantasy Review, but I cannotremember the exact dates (though at least onereview was from 1979, so that is one marker),and the issues are somewhere in the attic (Ithink). (It was before I was doing them oncomputer, that’s for sure.)

From: John Purcell July 3, 20063744 Marielene Circle, ColleegStation, TX. 77845-3926 USAj_purcell54@yahoo.com

Once again, I thank you for sendingAlexiad my way. The reviews, as always,were enlightening and helpful, to say nothingof downright interesting. I especially enjoyedthe reviews of the Groucho Marx Mysteries.I have never heard of those books before, sothe reviews were fun. In fact, if you wish toreview another suitably obscure book for myzine, I can assure you it would find a home inmy zine’s “Obscurato” column.

Feel free to contribute at any time.Speaking of series books, I have been

reading some of the Brother Cadfael books ofEllis Peters. Fun stuff. They may be historicalmysteries — set in 12th Century Shrewsbury— but that’s alright. Very enjoyable reading.There are also videos available starring DerekJacobi as the reputable monk, and they arelikewise quite enjoyable. I am entertaining thethought of reviewing one of them in my zine,but they are not obscure enough (which iswhy the book review column is so named). IfI follow through on this threat, I’ll keep youin mind.

Lisa, the fate of Barbaro was followedclosely in my household; we are all horselovers — my wife is a certified Vet Tech, infact — and we were thrilled to hear thatBarbaro was going to be all right. The beforeand after x-rays of his ankle were remarkable.When you expressed the wish that all trackswould install Polytrack because it’s safer forall horses, would you please elaborate on itscomponents? I am unfamiliar with Polytrack,and my wife wasn’t sure either. Thank you.

Polytrack is a recycled racingsurface. It’s been in use in Britain

some twenty years. Turfway Park inFlorence, Kentucky installed thesurface last year. According to themsnbc news website Turfway had 24fatal breakdowns on the previousdirt surface. This year they reportedonly three. 21 horses that probablywould have died on the track cameback safely. If true, it’s an amazingdifference. And if true, all tracksshould install it as soon as they canmanage it. A previous artificialsurface called Equitrack hadproblems because hooves damagedthe surface and the horses, notemulating Bill, inhaled the surface. Polytrack, however, has had atwenty-year test run in Great Britain.

— LTM

A wikicon is an intriguing idea, one thatmay simply be a flash-in-the-pan deal. Mygut feeling is that it might work for a smallconvention, something like under 100attendees. Anything larger might get toounwieldy and chaotic, thus resulting in hoteldamage and give fandom a black eye in theprocess. It might be worth experimenting withon a small scale; anything is worth a shot,says I, but those involved should be careful.The repercussions could be severe. But, likeI said a moment ago, this might simply be aone-time deal or just an idea tossed out fordiscussion. It is interesting, I have to admit.

I was not aware that Amazing Stories hadgone under yet again. This should not besurprising since I’ve been out of the sfmagazine reading loop for close to twentyyears. Being a bit of a nostalgic person atheart, I do hope that a publisher picks it upand handles it right. It would be so cool tohave it around in 2026. (Egad! I’ll be 72 yearsold by then! Oh, well.) Imagine the salesnumbers for the 100th Anniversary Issue.Johnny Carruthers mentions Dell Publicationsas the best choice at the present time, and Iagree; it seems to be running a slew ofhealthy genre magazines right now. Here’shoping somebody resurrects this granddaddyof all stfnal mags.

Gah. I’ll be 72 that year too,though towards its end.

— JTM

Wonderful book reviews herein, ofcourse. The bibliophile in me thanks you

Page 22 August 2006 Alexiad

from the bottom of my heart. As for theloccol, good stuff therein, but I have no realcomments to make. Otherwise, a fine zine,and I thank you!

From: Rodney Leighton June 24, 2006 11 Branch Road, R. R. #3,Tatmagouche, Nova Scotia B0K 1V0CANADA

There’s a way to distinguish betweenletters and locs.

Thanks for Alexiad, June edition. Arrivedsome time this week along with the latestVISA statement. What’s up with that,hmnnn?

Read most of it. Bill sent me a copy of that long letter and

it prompted me to make up a list of my ownwith a few comments. It also got me startedrereading the Wolfe books; I have read anumber of them over the past little while andgreatly enjoyed doing so.

I see you did some creative editing. Worksfor me.

Work, most of it, is currently a long damnways away. 70 to 90 minutes one way,depending on traffic and such. I have theoffer of the use of a camp closer. I drink a lotof water and like it cool or better yet cold;camp has no water. I need to soak in a tub ofhot water after work; camp does not havethat. So far I am thinking that it is worth thegas to come home, have a bite, load up thepipe, read letters if any have arrived or zinesor books while the water is heating up; havea good soak; have some supper and settle inthe easy chair with the pipe and a good book.And freeze my drinking water for the nextday. Means getting up at 3:00 a.m.; andwriting times are restricted to days like today,when I have some things I need to do anddon’t go to work or it’s raining hard or reallywet or some combination thereof, like today.

I did one page of a zine thing. Abandonedit. If I don’t want to write the thing, whywould anyone want to read it.

One of the things I had to do . . . have todo it 5 or 6 times a year was pump air intomy water tank, forcing the excess water out.Got that done.

Time to have a bite of breakfast. Yesterday I went to Truro. had the oil

change, etc. for the truck. Bought 3 Spensernovels. I find they are a much faster read thanthe Wolfe books; not sure why unless it is dueto print size. I read one yesterday after I got

home; lots of swearing in it, and sex, albeitnot graphic.

Bought a bunch of groceries, someneeded, some not, like the packages ofSmarties I noted next to the checkout, 12 ofthose bitty snack size boxes in a plastic bag,3 bags for $5, so I now have 35 little boxes ofSmarties.

On the way home I stopped at aconvenience store to get some pipe tobacco.They had some grab bags for $2 each. Wasteof money but, what the hell, I like thesethings, it’s fun seeing what is in them. Boughtone. Let’s see what is in it: 40 gram OhHenry bar, normally sells for about 60¢, Ithink.Package of Mentos. No idea what theseare. Breath mints?

Just had a call from the butcher who I getmy pepperoni from; I had ordered some beef,I guess I will have a bunch of beef in thefreezer this afternoon.

Woman who owned the secondhand bookstore died. Store is for sale. I kind of wishcould afford to buy it.

Came to your admonition to faneds tosend their fanzine to me and said, out loud:“Now why the hell did you do that?” Took alook at your fanzine list and decided I was inno danger. I think I already get all the paperfanzines on your list, at least in this issue,except Banana Wings and Opuntia. Beenbooted off the mailing list of both those.

Thing about fanzines 1 still like most ofthose I see. Sometimes, well . . . I read those4 issues of Banana Wings as though they hadbeen sent from the U.K. and I had promisedto read them all quickly and respond quickly.Skipped, maybe, 3 articles in the 4 issues andthoroughly enjoyed reading them. Not longafter issue #25 appeared. I read a fairly largesection of it. About a quarter, or so, to go, Ireturned to reading books. A month or 5weeks later, that issue is buried under thestand next to the easy chair under variouspublications, papers, crap. Not forgotten. Butnot of sufficient interest to drag it out. I don’treally want any more than I get, thanksanyway.

Robert Lichtman: well, I was hoping youwould answer the question. But if you don’twish to, hey, it’s no big deal. I shall refrainfrom directing any comments to or about youthenceforth. I was hoping for a response tomy query re TAFF reports but if you havestopped reading my letters, I guess that won’tbe forthcoming.

Sheryl: don’t know. MY memory is

almost as bad as Tim thinks it is and I amunsure what your question refers to. I will tryto answer it anyway. I got, from Lyn, apackage of 3 books: an older anthology ofshort stories; a copy of the latest book of farmtales, currently with my sister at Acadia andThe Duke’s Ballad. If I mentioned the first 2and a third book, yeah, that was it. I liked it.Later came a package with 2 books, a 10+year old anthology of mostly mediocre shotstories; Lyn’s was the second or third best outof 21, and a copy of Beast Master’s Circus,which I abandoned after page 40 due to anexcess of sf stuff.

Well, I’m damned if I know what theseMentos things are. My old eyes can’t read any of the label except the part that says‘chewy orange flavored sweets’. Perfectlygood description; 6 in the package, they areorange tasting, sort of like a mint, sort of likea bland gumdrop. I ate them, not bad but Iwon’t bother trying to find more. Seems tohave some foreign languages on the label, I’lltry to remember to stick it in for you to playwith if you so desire.

June 25. Yesterday just before I was goingto get my beef there came a knock on the door and there stood a female person. Saidshe was from Stats Can. My house had beenrandomly selected as one to be surveyed reemployment. Yippee. Let her in. I said:“Don’t mind the mess and clutter.” She said:“You’re a bachelor?” “ Yep.” “ I’ve seenworse.” she said. And; “it doesn’t look toobad to me.” The third time she asked if I wassingle I wondered if she was hunting. 15years ago I would have done my best to showher the bed or screwed her on the kitchentable where she had her computer typing inanswers if that was what sbe wished. Thistime I didn’t even flirt with this gal but thatmay not be true; at one point she was sayingsomething about calling me and I wasexplaining that I always let the answeringmachine pick up all phone calls and shewondered how to reach me and I said, “well,wait until after the end of my message andsay:’this is the sexy Stats Can worker fromMalagash’” and she kind of scoffed. Not abad looking woman but, truthfully, not verysexy.

The grab bag also had a Cadbury CremeEgg. I’m gonna go eat it.

Well, I’ve been goofing off. Read all threeof the Spenser books. One interesting aspectI have noticed is that these books providesome of the details that long time readers

would already know but leave others for thereader to figure out. For instance, in theWolfe books, each one introduces thebrownstone, its layout, its occupants andschedule and other things; every bookdescribes Saul Panzer and Inspector Cramer,if he appears; everyone describes Wolfe’sschedule with the orchids and other things. The Spenser books describe some things, likeSusan’s house and office but leave otherthings, such as who Susan might be, to thedetection of the reader. Or sometimes not.Another aspect is that while they try toportray Spenser as a real hardass and a ratherbad guy, some books have him doinghumanitarian things.

Crimson Joy, 1988, has the cops askingSpenser for help in a murder; serial killer is apatient of Susan’s; she comes to realize it butrefuses to name him and is really pissed atSpenser and Hawk for demanding theyprotect her. But in the end, the killer, who isbadly messed up psychologically, ends upcrying in Spenser’s arms.

In Paper Doll, 1993, Spenser getsinvolved in finding the killer of a woman whowas not who she said she was and he tries tonot only solve that but to help a badlydysfunctional man and his two children andalso learns who killed the woman but lets himgo.

Chance, 1996, has him and Hawk takingon the mob and is more violent than the othertwo but also has Spenser using a woman whohas been abused a lot, in order to help her.One of the guys who was part of a later bookI read is introduced here; a guy named Leeappears in some of the books; he isintroduced in Paper Doll.

Another thing I have been thinking is theage thing. Archie never seems to age; through30 years of Stout novels and into theGoldsborough novels he is still a ladykiller;more handsome and stronger than anyone onearth. I don’t know how old Spenser shouldbe but in Chance it is mentioned that he andSusan have been together for twenty years. So, having been other things prior to being aP.I. and having been one prior to meetingSusan, it figures that he must be, in Chance,at least 45 or 50. Susan must also be close tothat. More recent books would make themolder still. Almost my age. Yet, Spenser isstill the toughest dude on earth, with thepossible exception of Hawk; Hawk still getswomen merely by smiling at them and Susanis still the hottest babe around. And they still

Alexiad August 2006 Page 23

act like they are 20 something. It’s kind ofcute. And kind of silly.

I once calculated, reading one of theGoldsborough Wolfe novels, that Archie would be 70 something and Lily close to that.But they still acted like 20 somethings. Part ofme wanted to ignore it and just enjoy thestory; part of me wanted to feel it was totallyridiculous.

Reading The League of Frightened Men Iwas startled to find Inspector Cramer smokinga pipe. So he went from a pipe smoker to acigar smoker to a cigar chewer. Entirelypossible; if only Archie had not proclaimed inlater books that he had never seen Cramerlight a cigar.

I also found: “God made you and me, incertain respects, quite unequal, and it wouldbe futile to try any interference with Hisarrangements.” Ha. One thing which justoccurred to me is that I can’t recall anyattempt at establishing Wolfe and Archie’shistory. While smoking his pipe, Cramersays: “I’ve known Nero Wolfe longer thanyou have, sonny”. And Archie states that hehas lived there for seven years. Which wouldsuggest that Wolfe was a detective living inthat house before the advent of the brash andapparently indispensable Archie Goodwin.How did that come about, I wonder?

In the first Wolfe novel, Fer-d e -L anc e ( 19 3 4 ) , A r c h iementions that Wolfe had had notonly him but Saul Panzer andFred Durkin on the payroll; thencame the Depression and layoffs.

That grab bag also had a HersheyMarshmallow Egg. And a weird thing that sffolks should love. Plastic, looks somethinglike a rocket ship. Called Twistup. Got somekind of cherry flavoured soft candy inside it;I’m not inclined to mess with it any longer atthe moment.

You have, no doubt, noted that LynMcConchie won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for best SF/F novel written by a New Zealandwriter for The Duke’s Ballad. Don’t knowhow Andre Norton’s name on the cover washandled.

Well, this is certainly lots of stuff. I amgoing down and cut a few scattered hardwoodtrees. That area is polluted with bears. Onetime I was down there I had cut a tree whichlanded partially on the road and I cut that upfor firewood. Loading it on the truck I looked

up and noted a bear ambling down the road. Watched him awhile; it’s a long straightstretch there. The machine which hauls woodwas parked on the side of the road, opposite awoods road, a road into the area to be cut.Bear came to there, glanced at the porter,decided it held no interest for him and turnedinto the woods road and ambled up that, Iguess. Various people have mentioned seeinga sow with two cubs down there. Got to godown there shortly and walk quite a ways and then cut a few trees.

Okay, I guess this will do for now. LeahZeldes Smith mentioned to me, ages ago, thatit was possible to write a loc withoutmentioning anything in the fanzine or even the fanzine itself; I didn’t think that was toosensible. BUT I seem to be gravitating thatway.

From: Dainis Bisenieks June 26, 2006921 S. St. Bernard Street,Philadelphia, PA 19143-3310 USA

My prayers to the Godling of SmallFavors (in 1950s money, $1.98) have againyielded results. Books of interest at theCatholic parish rummage sale were few butgood; I have mentioned Otto Skorzeny inthese pages, and behold! there was the bookabout him, Commando Extraordinary byCharles Foley, in the 1967 Berkley edition. The irrelevant cover seems to show theGerman descent on Crete, and there are noillos, but I do at least have a pic of the man inRoger Manvell’s The Conspirators, where heactually gets no more than a line. Afascinating account appears in the presentbook. Setting off from Berlin for Vienna, hewas hastily summoned as being a man whocould help bring order out of chaos! A telling(and nicely told excerpt):

He decided to take the bull by the hornsand go up to Armored G.H.Q.; but on turningin that direction he found the avenue leadingto it was barred by tanks. Whose side werethey on? Did they know themselves? Skorzeny drew himself up in the moving carto suggest that their side was his side and thathis presence was expected. The tankmensaluted and let him pass; he was in..

Eventually he arrived at the War Office intime to witness the departure of GeneralFromm, Home Army Commander-in-Chief. Inside, he restored some order and learnedmore facts. But now, where was th etop man

to make decisions when they were asked for? Major Skorzeny decided to assume theresponsibility: “when, some hours later, hegot through to the Wolf’s Lair he was simplytold to carry on” which he did until on July 22Himmler walked in and relieved him.

What his subsequent reflections were, Iwill leave as an exercise for the reader.

Checking the works of SirJohn Wheeler-Bennett (TheNemesis of Power) and PeterHoffman (The History of theGerman Resistance 1933-1945),the reader learns that Skorzenywas a minor figure, working underthe direction and supervision ofR S H A c h i e f S S -O b e r g r u p p e nführ e r E r n s tK a l t e n b r u n n e r ( W h e e l e r -Bennett, Pages 662 & 675;Hoffman, Pages 510-511).

I first heard of Skorzeny for certain inApril 1945, when a children’s book aboutGerman war heroes was briefly in my hands. Each story was a sequence of pictures withthe narrative in rhymed quatrains; and there Ilearned how he sprang Mussolini fromcaptivity on the Gran Sasso. The woman wholent it to me remarked how the war had bythen been lost; nobody was alert for that kindof talk among civilians any more.

Memories of that time: the formations ofbombers, locally unopposed, flying across theAlps; the trail of discarded objects left by anArmy unit retreating farther into the Alps,with here and there a roadside grave. In allthat time, I saw no blood and no corpses,though dreadful things were just around thecorner. Much was just plain unpleasant. When I first heard the word “Ausländer”, Iknew instantly what it meant.

Those were Interesting Times.Oh yes — the book is little burdened with

untranslated German. No O.K.W, noR.H.S.A, no SS ranks. Ah, but we know . . .

O b e r k o m m a n d o d e rWehrmacht

“Supreme Command of theArmed Forces”Reichssicherheitshauptamt“Reich Security Main Office”

Two more instances of bad moons wererevealed to me in the course of proofreading,

both crescents setting much, much too late. One was in “Piracy Preferred”, first of the“Arcot, Wade, and Morey” stories collectedunder the title of the third, The Black StarPasses. The other, a recent fantasy story in aYear’s Best antho; naming no names, I willonly say it came from F&SF, whose editorwas blissfully unaware.

The antho text was clean, with nocharacteristic OCR errors, but in three or fourplaces some small and necessary word wasmissing from a sentence; which I thensupplied. Let me give a sentence from anolder published work in which I supply sucha word:

Smaug certainly looked fastasleep, almost dead and dark, withscarcely a snore nor more than a whiffof unseen steam, when Bilbo peepedonce more from the entrance . . .

A nicely structured, balanced sentence,what? If I were translating, this is what Iwould translate, just as in Titus Groan Iwould translate adjure, stalagmites, lupine,and marten instead of the words that occurredin the printed text (the first, at least, has beenfixed). It is easy to see that betweenholograph and typescript one of three similarwords was lost, and nobody ever noticed.

I see also that Lindsey Davis has changedpublishers; the “Falco” series now comesfrom St. Martin’s/Minotaur. (NormanJohnson?) With a dust wrapper designed bya committee, See Delphi and Die suffers froman image problem. And U.S. publication isstill a year behind British.

Jasper Fforde never had any suchproblem; I await The Fourth Bear. Cognoscenti will have noticed that the“Nursery Crime” books derive from theextreme makeover of Caversham Heights (seethe conclusion of The Well of Lost Plots). Eradications Anonymous, the mutual supportgroup for those whose nearest and dearesthave been expunged from history; its object isto help the afflicted to get their delusionalmemories out of their system. And when arejoicing member shows up with her restoredhusband — “‘Does anyone recognize thisperson?’” She then realizes: “‘Now he’s back,everything is as it was, and I wouldn’t haveneeded to come to your group, so I didn’t —yet I remember . . .”

Can there have been an issue of Alexiad inwhich H. Beam Piper has not been

Page 24 August 2006 Alexiad

mentioned? Can his work be as canonical asall that? I have told of a re-reading of“Temple Trouble”, umpty-ump years ago,when I realized that the Paratimers were thebad guys, monopolizing the sale of mirrorsand beads to the natives of the Multiverse.

Janine Stinson finds a statement of mineunclear. Okay: A Cherryh novel set in 2324is written as though by a writer in 2324,avoiding exposition of what a reader in 2324could be expected to know.

Damon Knight praised Murderin Millennium VI (1951) by CurmeGray, an obscure (and only) novelby an obscure writer, because ithad precisely that structure (InSearch of Wonder, Pages 201-206).

Gosh, an allusion to “Piracy Preferred”! What most strikes me about the youngCampbell’s space opera is (1) the perfervidlanguage in which very large engineeringworks are described, and (2) the prenaturallyshort time that passes between the first back-of-envelope design and the completedproduct. Goshwow!

Further to Janine: if Seton’s Katherine isa favorite, did you spot the astrologercalculating the influence of Neptune?

Whoever might, in some finer world thanthis, edit a revivied Amazing would do well tohave an assistant editor or two withknowledge vegetable, animal, and mineral;who knows, for example, the differencebetween ordnance and ordinance. And allthat sort of thing. Perfection is onlyapproached asymptotically . . . but I think Idid rather well in exactly that work at exactlythat magazine.

A TV meteorologist was telling about thebeginning of summer — in very, verymisleading language. In the purelyastronomical sense, it’s all downhill fromJune 21 on.

I had the identical thought about Barbaro:not likely to improve the breed.

In the May 22 New Yorker I read aboutPatrick Leigh Fermor, a real-life character outof E. R. Eddison. I had, in fact, heard of thewartime exploit in which he had a part, thekidnaping of a German General on Crete. Itwas reported, I cannot recall where, to haveentered the local tradition of epic chant, withinevitable changes from soberly-recordedhistory. Y’know — Milman Parry; Albert B.

Lord’s The Singer of Tales, the oral-formulaicmethod of the Homeric and the Serbian bard. The sober history in this case is Ill Met ByMoonlight by W. Stanley Moss, not likely toeasily fall into my hands. Fermor’s ownwritings are books of travel; but a biographyis in preparation.

Ill Met By Moonlight is betterknown for the movie:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049357/You will be pleased (or

perhaps resigned) to know that ithas an error about the phase ofthe moon. It is available on VHSand DVD.

Sir Patrick Michael LeighFermor, D.S.O., is ninety-one,and was knighted in 2004.

It did not surprise me to learn that amonghis friends was Sir Ian Moncreiffe of that Ilk,who also did something in the war.

The Brits also had Vladimir Peniakoff; Iread the book Popski’s Private Army, manyyears ago, and was more recently pleased tosee a tribute to him in Osbert Lancaster’sSailing to Byzantium .

Can I then in the same breath speak ofOtto Skorzeny, who was after all on the otherside?

Somewhat depressingly, thereare only fifteen or so veteransof P.P.A. still living. I have atsome expense bought the Britishedition of Peniakoff’s book,titled merely Private Army,because the Penguin paperbackedition had been cut. One of hisofficers was named JohnCampbell. Really. (John DavisCampbell, M.C.+, Captain, Argyll &Sutherland Highlanders — andhe’s still alive, the last survivingofficer of P.P.A.)

Now if only Popski would be aspopular among alternate historywriters as Skorzeny is . . .

http://users.pandora.be/ppa/— JTM

In the matter of railway journeys byTalbot Mundy characters, I have learned thata line from Lod (Lydda) to Haifa was notbuilt until after the British conquest ofPalestine; but my sources give no date. From

Haifa it was certainly possible to reachDamascus via Dera’a, a journey (it says here)of ten hours. I have this from a JerusalemPost article, which tells also that a renewedline, making a more southerly crossing of theJordan Valley, where Jordan will then buildits part, is in an advanced stage of planning.

There came for proofing a no-holds-barred farce of alien invasion and human riotswhich required wholesale revision ofpunctuation. Authorial solecisms aboundedto the degree that I seriously wondered howmany of them were part of the intendedeffect. But surely not, for example, repeated“then” for “than”? Beyond such things, torevise was not my brief. One syntacticdeviation was used so often that I just had toleave it in place. Considering a part of theintended stylistic effect. I wondered whatreviews the original edition got — but I amsuppressing the names to protect the guilty.

From: Jeffrey Allan Boman July 3, 20066900 Cote St-Luc Rd. #708, Montreal,QC H4V 2Y9 CANADAcroft@bigfoot.com

This is Jeff from Jolicoeur (not really . . .I just wanted that alliteration thing).

I hoped to have this letter in last issue ofthe zine, but computer issues and Canada Postmade that impossible: the Post lost my zine intransit, so I had to print out a new one. I stillhoped to be ready, but the loss cost me abouta month of reading and writing time.

My computer is more thorny: Withinabout a month of my last letters Windows andmy Hard Drives ceased to be easilyaccessible. Until I can get back to the shop toget this latest mess fixed I’ve had to useLinux live CDs to even get online. The goodnews is that I like Linux, and will make myPC dual-boot with it when I can. The badnews however is that if I don’t save my filesin my Gmail account as a backup, I lose themon a reboot. When running off CD there’s noother way to save stuff.

I’m hoping to get it fixed soon, but fornow this just proves an addage I just made up:where there’s a Taurus there’s a way.

Onto Alexiad Vol. 5, No. 2:Congratulations Joe on getting Heinlein’s

Children out! I’m sure my friend SpiderRobinson will be glad to hype this book,considering both that he’s a huge RAH fanand has the title as his successor. / I also can’tsee today’s kids digging Howdy Doody. Lack

of computer-generated effects alone wouldturn them right off. / I fail to see a point to theIPY. Mind you I already think of DaylightSaving Time as a dumb thing.

Really bad news about “Robert Jordan”.I’m not a fan of his writing, but he’s still afellow human being. His writing style isirrelevant to his health. / As a member of theIMPs (Impatient to be Published) onCompuserve’s SF Literature forums, MikeResnick is also Bwana. / I’m not a big fan ofRay Bradbury’s work, and he’s come acrossas a crusty curmudgeon in interviews of late,so Bradbury Speaks doesn’t interest me in theleast. / The Spies Who Never Were sounds likea book that would interest me. It goes withoutsaying that I wish these double agents hadbeen able to take Hitler out, but thatultimately wasn’t their results . . .

Well in a sense they did:Consider how much GARBOcontributed to the success ofthe Normandy landings.

With my current PC woes, Marconi ismore difficult to read . . . / I was a member ofThe Bi-Metallic Question, a Holmes club herein Montreal, so reports about fan tripsinvolving him interest me. / Welcome to theworld of digital photography. / Re:Misquoting Jesus . . . don’t get me started onhow the scriptures have been changed by man. . . I’ll never leave.

LettersJohn Hertz: Thanks to The Simpsons I

can’t think of the word Duff without alsothinking of beer. :)

Sheryl Birkhead: I’m a chocoholic also –but one who had to stop it cold turkey nearly4 years ago for dietary reasons. You neverforget it though.

Alexis A. Gilliand: I don’t remember ifTorcon III in 2003 had a fan GoH . . . mindyou I was just happy to be there, what with itbeing my first WorldCon, so who the guestswere was irrelevant to me! There were folksI’ll always be glad I saw again (it was the lasttime I saw the late Harry Stubbs) and someI’m glad I had a chance to meet (RobertSilverberg [even if he was unlikable] and thelate Jack L. Chalker [my guilty pleasure])though.

Robert S. Kennedy: Let me add mybelated sympathies on your loss. / I’mgunning for Montreal to win the 2009WorldCon bid for selfish reasons (my

Alexiad August 2006 Page 25

hometown), so I can’t knock you for hard-selling Denver in 2008. / I’ve yet to see TheThirteenth Floor, but it’s tempting me to rentit now. Yours makes the third praise of it. /Crash was an okay film, but as you say, notperfect. I hadn’t even thought of the gaffe inthe gun purchase scene.

Me: Ah, my PC headaches had alreadybegun here. Serves me right for actuallytrying to upgrade a system that was workinguntil then. / To answer you Joe: when I havethe bucks free, I’ll order your book.

Brad W. Foster: Good to hear that yourcat’s cancer is cleared up. One of my mom’scats may have this blight. If so I hope she canpull through it.

M ilt Stevens: Just the fact that there arestill living veterans of WW I is amazing initself!

Sixty-nine world-wide, twentyin the U.S. (including oneCanadian) and three in Canada. Subject to change without priornotice.

Lloyd Penney: You mention our coffeeshops to Trinlay . . . I’m part of theNaNoWriMo (National Novel WritingMonth) group here in Montreal. We’vealways met at a Second Cup, and our first twoyears we were next door to a Starbucks. Wemade a point of supporting the Canadianbusiness.

George W. Price: Concerning your storyto Brad about the cat mothers: I thought wewere supposed to stay away from kittens thatyoung or the mothers would kill them – or isthis just an old wife’s tale?

David Herrington: I have you trumped asfar as long overdue reading goes: I still havebooks to read that I bought in 2003! Outsideof books on writing, deadlines have kept mefrom reading novels for fun for eons.

Trinlay Khadro: My condolences onyour uncle dying. / In my family, men top outin their late 70s. / I’ve heard so many badreviews of Alexander. If you do succeed inwatching it, I suspect you’ll deserve a medal./ concerning your Worth More Deadcomments: I was feeling suicidal myselfabout 12 years ago, then realized the personwho led to that feeling wasn’t worth it.Haven’t felt that way since. Besides, my catwould go hungry if I wasn’t here to feed her.

Taras Wolensky: I’ve seen the script forthe follow-up film to Buckaroo Banzai. It

makes me even sorrier it never got filmed.

According to IMDB it was: asBig Trouble In Little China.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090728/The Adventures of Buckaroo

Banzai Across the 8th Dimensionhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086856/

Sue Burke: I also only saw Serenity whenit came out on DVD. In fact, I own it now. /I’m surprised film piracy is so rampant inSpain. I though it was more prevalent in Asia.

Martin Helgessen: You must get achuckle out of Firefox code-naming the nextversion of their browser “Bon Echo”, so closeto Bon Ami.

July 8th, 2006

This is Jeff from Jolliette . . . (I can’t keep having double letters in one

issue. I’ll run out of ‘j’ names more rapidly.)I managed to read issue 5.3 faster than I

expected, so I could start on this LoC sooner.Before I start: I created a wetpaint

community for APAs, zines and similarthings on the Internets. The URL is:

http://fanselfpub.wetpaint.com/page/Home

So far I’m the only contributor but I hopethat’ll change. Like a Wiki anyone can createan account and update it. This opens it up tospammers, but I’ll slowly and surely get rid ofthem.

So far I’ve only listed the APAs and zinesI’m a member of, so Comicopia, The KnarleyKnews and Alexiad get mentioned. All I haveis Joe’s e-mail address here, but ISpam-blocked it. Making Joe the recipient ofa ton of unwanted junk would be rude on mypart.

Re: Reviewer’s Notes . . . the wikicon ideasounds doomed to failure. I stepped downfrom conrunning to avoid group politicsstress, but I hope more people come in. / I’vemanaged to avoid MySpace, but I have manyblogs, a Livejournal, and member accounts onFriendster and tribe so I’m not that far away.

Re: Random Jottings . . . I had the chanceto meet Forry at Con*Cept 1999, and have aphoto with him. I didn’t realize he had literarychops outside of Famous Monsters ofFilmland though. / H. Beam Piper is one ofmy favorite authors. His notes to tie all of hiswritings together was an inspiration to me;

although my own notes don’t even hold acandle to his, I try. I’ve always wished he hadlived to write more, so we could read howeverything held together . . . having some ofhis work now available through ProjectGutenberg is both bad and good: bad that hisestate couldn’t keep his work out of thepublic domain. Good since more people cannow be exposed to his work.

It’s coming up on forty-twoyears since Piper killed himself,so some copyright expirationsseem inevitable. The duration ofcopyright is a delicate balancebeween authors being able tomake a living and readers needingto read it. For example, theworks of Henry Kuttner and C. L.Moore were kept out of printbecause Moore’s second husbanddespised SF; but now that he’sgone, his daughter has soldrights and we can see theBaldies, Gallagher, NorthwestSmith, Jirel of Joiry, and therest of the gang again.

Re: Dying of the Light review . . . I’vebeen a fan of George R.R. Martin’s work eversince the Wildcards novels. I’ve grown tolove his Songs of Ice and Fire series and hisskill at making such a large cast interesting.That said, this book doesn’t sound interestingto me. / Re: Vault of the Ages . . . with somany millennium before the time capsule ismeant to be opened there’s one importantthing the originators should have thought of:if people of that time don’t have a way to readwhat they’re given, it will have beenpointless!

Re: Tékumel reviews . . . I’ve only readThe Man of Gold and Flamesong as I’venever found the other books. Personally I likethe very different flavor of this universe. Tome what’s made most fantasy mediocre hasbeen a dependence on Medieval Europe asinspiration for the world. I never knew thatProfessor Barker was a follower of Islamthough. I remember him having strong femaleprotagonists. I wonder how this sat with hisreligious views. / Re: Ron Goulart’s Groucho novels . . . Groucho as a detective?That reads as a strange mixture . . . I have totrack these down!

I got the other three

Tékumel books from Amazon. The publisher has a website:

http://www.zotpubs.com

Re: Spin review . . . the sloppy editing tomake times inconsistent would make this a“Toss against the wall and give up” book tome. / Re: The Empress of India review . . . abook that expands characters from theHolmes canon. That’s a good thing to me. /Re: One Nation Under Therapy review . . . Ifeel like an old fogey saying this, but mygeneration wasn’t this messed up. / Re: TheTrue Stella Awards review . . . this seems acompanion to the Darwin Awards, as furtherevidence of how messed up modern societyis.

Re: Inkheart. . . I recently got PrincessBride on DVD. Any book in a similar vein issomething I’ll have to track down. / Re:Amazing Stories . . . I got a form letter fromthe magazine in 1999 (I think at the time TSRhad it) to the effect that they already had toomany stories in submission backlog andwouldn’t review any newer ones. That themagazine is again in bad shape (and with adifferent publisher too) is a real shame. I hopeit gets back on its feet and remains so thistime. / I’d also think of Dell Magazines as agood home. It could provide a different flavorof SF from both Analog and Asimov’s.

Re: The Human Brain . . . review . . . I’veread up a lot of materials on the brain andnervous system. I wonder if this one wouldinterest me as well or seem too dry.

LettersRichard Dengrove: As it was relayed to

me, the situation between Jews and Arabs inthe Middle East is even more complicated. Iwas told that when Israel was created, theJews offered Palestinians every opportunity tobe equal partners. At the time, the otherleaders refused, taking their people to tentencampments instead, then tried to teachtheir people that the Jews forced them out.Add to this the fact that Yassir Arafat walkedaway from an Israeli offer for a Palestinianhomeland as they have now . .. I think no oneis in the right there.

Janice G. Stinson: Re your comments toCarol Clarke on favorite movies lists . . . minegrows many times also. When it comes to oldschool favorites though, my list hasn’tchanged: It’s a Wonderful Life, Citizen Kaneand Some Like it Hot. / I can’t help butanthropomorphize my cats at times. Mindyou, I see them the most and after 13/17

Page 26 August 2006 Alexiad

years, so I can’t really avoid it.Alexis A. Gilliand: Using another bit from

Life of Brian, I read anything about Gospelsand I just start singing “Always look on thebright side of life!”

Trinlay Khadro: Genndy Tartakovsy is tome one of the most prolific and inventiveNorth American animators. Had I the funds,I’d buy every series he has out on DVD.

E. B. Frohvet: I didn’t mean no authorcould involve Hitler yet write well. I justmeant my own bias against seeing it that way.It only worked for The Producers because it’sdone in ridicule. / You had good experiencesmeeting Harlan years ago, but I’ve also heardmany bad experiences.

Martin Morse Wooster: I don’t thinkMontreal’s MONSFFA ever had ties to otherfannish groups like that. As far as I know itsonly claim was in having a legend ofAsimov’s magazine editing and friend ofIsaac’s (Alistair Searle?) a member in his lastfew years.

Jason K. Burnett: Switching from librarystudies to the medicine field? To me, thatseems a dramatic switch!

Robert Lichtman: Pacing myself onefanzines has proven not to be difficult, aszero hasn’t been a challenge to maintain. /Roger Ebert was a zine guy also? If he didn’tseem so mediocre to me as a film critic (Inever base my film choices on them) I’d thinkof him as cool.

Brad W. Foster: Congratulations on yourHugo nomination! I hope it’ll go your way. /I believe I often hear the head of Yard DogPress on some of the “Winging it” podcasts.

Dainis Bisenieks: I wouldn’t be surprisedif that “Halfelven” typo on Tolkien’s worksled to that being a race in the Dungeons andDragons game. At least it may haveinfluenced it.

Sheryl Birkhead: I rented BrokebackMountain a few months ago. While it shockedme to see Michelle Williams and AnneHathaway shed their wholesome images(Michelle was supposed to be a vamp onDawson’s Creek, but we never saw it fully),it was mostly just an okay film, not to meaward-worthy.

Lloyd Penney: For now at least you mayonly see me here and in TKK, unless I learnhow to read and write faster, so my otherproject deadlines aren’t too affected. / I’msure the Montreal bid was initially quiet forthe reasons you mention. I worked with Reneon Con*Cept; I know he’s fantastic at what he

does. / Re: Joe’s comment . . . send me morezines? Ghod no! I need to sleep sometime!

Sleep? That’s a diseasecaused by caffeine deficiency.

(Granted I’m prolific but I’m not alsomasochistic!)

Milt Stevens: With me a fan of HongKong action films, your great grandmother’scane sounded very cool!

Rod E. Smith: A DV film camera likewhat you mention is likely my next item . . .and I’m not even close to being an engineer.

Henry L. Welch: I’ll be 40 next May, andso far I still have the most hair of all the menin my family. Hopefully that won’t soonchange.

Colleen R. Cahill: Good to hear a cutbackon medicine got you to LoC.

John Purcell: My reading habits haven’tbeen as good as I’d like for nearly 5 yearsnow. I’ve gone to several conventions, boughta lot of books with the authors present to signthem, but I haven’t gotten around to readingmany of them. I guess writing means lessreading.

Robert S. Kennedy: I’ve been veryhesitant about seeing United 93 myself. Justthe images of the crumbling towers on allchannels at the time of 9-11 scarred me for along time; this film could put me back intothose dark days. / I have neither watchedVeronica Mars or Bones. Not enough hours inthe day. / I wish I could claim weight backthat I lost at conventions! At less than 120pounds, I need all I can get!

Sue Burke: Even if I was in a safe place Iwouldn’t visit Chernobyl! Good thing travelto other continents isn’t in my current budget.

Taras Wolansky: I briefly met WenSpencer at Torcon 3 in 2003, and have readsamples of her work, even link to her blogfrom mine . . .yet I didn’t know anything ofher brother. Shows how little I read her online. . . yet more of the “writing more thanreading” excuse I guess . . .

Re: A Lost Episode of The Prisoner . . . Ican picture the crankiness of the actormeeting Morpheus. Patrick McGoohan comesoff as very crabby.

The scene where P and Neofaced off in a bout of Kosho wassomething else, let me tell you!

— JTM

From:: Lloyd Penney July 12, 20061706-24 Eva Road, Etobicoke, ONCANADA M9C 2B2penneys@allstream.net

Many thanks for sending off the newestAlexiad, no. 27. This may be a quick letter,who knows?

A wikicon? I’ve heard of on-lineconventions before, and in spite of the bestefforts, I don’t think they’ve happened asenvisioned. Nothing beats getting togetherand socializing. In many ways, there may besome level of trust online, but I am seeing thatmanners aren’t getting any better. We’re sobrave that I can say what I like and flame youbecause I have the safely of distance andpseudo-anonymity. There’s still too muchheat, and not enough light.

The announcement of a large Star Trekprogramming track at LAcon IV has some ofthe local Trekfans in a tizzy. This pastweekend’s convention was our local Trekcon, and most of these folks would neverthink to go to Worldcon. Now, they wish theycould, and it’s too late.

I was looking forward to meeting FrankieThomas at LAcon IV, mostly because I didsee some of the episodes of “Tom Corbett” onlocal television some years ago. This isbecoming a trend, to have some of theWorldcon’s GoHs pass away before theconvention can actually happen. We need tohonour these people quicker, or get youngerguests.

At least it wasn’t like JohnBrunner, who died at the con. And then there was PatrickTroughton, who did not becomeJon Pertwee.

The review of Robert Charles Wilson’sSpin reminds me that I should pass on to youthe winners of this year’s Aurora Awards.Spin was nominated for Best Long-FormWork in English, but lost to Cagebird byKarin Lowachee.

I would also like to see Amazing Storiesrise from its perpetual ashes, and become aregular magazine again, paper or otherwise. Iwould very much like to find out howprofitable pulps like Asimov’s, Analog andF&SF are in this electronic age. Do you thinkDell might be interested, or would that just bea further drain on a limited profit margin?Maybe we’re just poking the dead carcass,

hoping it will move a little further withenough impetus.

The only reason I ask if there truly is thatmuch coffee in the world is that there nowseems to be dozens of coffee shops, all withineasy reach, and all quite busy. But then, thiskind of phenomena goes back some yearsago, pre-Starbucks, when there was a ChockFull o’ Nuts on nearly every street corner inManhattan in the late 70s.

It is easy to think that awards like theFAAns are controlled by a small group. I usedto think the same thing about the Auroras.However, it wasn’t that a small group wascontrolling, but that the group was the onlygroup participating. This year’s Aurorawinners are much more representative ofCanadian fandom and prodom because therewas record participation from across thecountry. I think the same illusion dogs theFAAns, and there has to be more participationfrom fanzine fandom around the world.

Fan fund reports hey, Yvonne and I wroteup our CUFF adventures in a traditionalprinted trip report. If we can do it, surelyTAFF and DUFF winners can do it. Or, arewe now so seduced by the Web that we don’tcare to print up a report, even if electronic?

PR5 for LAcon IV should be availableshortly, if they have not arrived at your homeaddress by now. That’s my next big job, get200+ PR5s in the mail to all Canadianmembers.

I’ve paying what attention I can to thecurrent shuttle mission. NASA demanded thatit launch, dismissing the concerns expressedby its own technicians. NASA is lucky thatthe mission has been flawless, but they can’tbe this lucky every time. I wish they’d listenmore to their techs, they were doing whatthey get paid for. Nonsense like making surethe shuttle launches on July 4 will getvaluable people killed.

Hello, Henry I got the feeling youweren’t happy about Ditto from reading yourwriting here and in your own zine. Sorry Imisinterpreted your remarks. Yet, you weredisappointed with the number of people whoattended, and that’s where I probably got thatimpression.

Greetings again to Robert S. Kennedy.Yvonne will be trying to bring the 2009 ISDCto Toronto. Because the Japanese Worldcon issimply unaffordable for us, our plans are togo to the 2007 ISDC in Dallas in May.Perhaps see you there.

Alexiad August 2006 Page 27

Not NASFiC in St. Louis? We’re planning to be there.

— JTM

And, I am done here. Lunch is a little late,but go and have it I shall. If you are planningto be at the Worldcon, we’ll see you there.And, if not, we’ll see you next issue. Lookingforward to it.

From: George W. Price July 14, 2006P.O. Box A3228, Chicago, IL60690-3228 USAgrgpric@aol.com

Joe’s review of Naomi Novik’s

“Temeraire” books about dragons inNapoleonic times notes that some dragons areridden by women and comments, “Keep it onthe quietus, or next thing you know they’llwant to own property or even vote!” I realizethis is tongue-in-cheek, but it reflects acommon misunderstanding. You shouldn’tbelieve for an instant that women were deniedthe right to own property in early 19thCentury England. Or before. Or since. In theromantic fiction of that time, a frequent themeis the well-born but penniless fellow whoseeks to repair his fortunes by marrying a richwidow. But how could there ever be a richwidow if women couldn’t own property?Upon the husband’s death, wouldn’t hisproperty have to go to the nearest male heir?I suspect that this notion of women withoutproperty rights really stems from the fact thatin many jurisdictions a married woman couldnot own property independently of herhusband. When she married, her propertybecame his. But likewise, when he died, hisproperty became hers. So, women could anddid own property, and there were plenty ofrich widows — though never enough tosatisfy the demand.

My favorite light opera, Lehar’s TheMerry Widow, turns on this point. CountDanilo balks at marrying Hanna, the richwidow of a banker, because he doesn’t wantto be thought a fortune hunter. So she tellshim that she will lose her money if sheremarries. The obstacle removed, he proposesand she accepts. And then she tells him thatthe reason she will lose her money is that itwill go to her husband.

* * * * *Joe reviews The True Stella Awards:

Honoring Real Cases of Greedy Opportunists,Frivolous Lawsuits, and the Law Run Amok,

by Randy Cassingham, and quotes from it,“When a truly frivolous suit is filed, theremust be real and meaningful sanctions againstthe plaintiffs involved — and, often, theirlawyers.” My suggestion is that a judge,confronted with such a case, should respondby laughing until he falls off his chair. Thenhe should dismiss the case — with prejudice— and fine the lawyer a suitably heavy sumfor bringing frivolous litigation. And finally,he should remit half the fine, for giving thecourt such a good laugh.

But why do so many judges tolerate suchnonsense in the first place? Well, some judgesdon’t really care about the Rule of Law;instead they look for any excuse to make thecase come out the way their ideology orsympathies dictate. Apart from that, the mostbelievable reason I’ve heard is that many ajudge will get tired of the boring job ofconstruing the law as it stands, and will try tomake a name for himself by “breaking newground” — that is, by torturing the law tomake it mean something that had neveroccurred to the legislators who wrote the law.In either case, the problem is not primarily thelawyers, who are only trying to help theirclients win; it is the judges who toleratefrivolous suits and absurd interpretations ofthe law. The lawyers are only doing what thejudges let them get away with.

* * * * *Lisa mentions (“Rural King”) seeing

“Toobs, which are plastic transparent tubes ofdifferent varieties of figures. There are PirateToobs but unfortunately I didn’t see any thatcould have been Anne Bonney or MaryRead.” Ah, you mean, no Toobs with boobs?

* * * * *Rodford Edmiston’s “The Joy of High

Tech” discusses the history of iron and steelmaking. He notes that “For over a thousandyears, the most successful [artisans] were . . .those who could consistently reproduce theirresults.” Their hard-won rules of thumb wereeventually displaced “as science explainedjust what was happening and provided toolsto make it happen more easily.”

This reminds me of an event fifty-oddyears ago, when I was a spectrographer in acommercial laboratory that analyzed samplesfor die casters, smelters, and other metalproducers. Most of the samples were ofknown alloys, and our job was to make surethat the samples met the specifications forthose alloys. But once, a regular customersent us a sample that was a real oddball. It not

only didn’t meet the specs for what thecustomer told us it was, it did not come closeto any standard alloy. But I did the analysisand sent them the results. Then about twoweeks later another commercial laboratorysent us a sample that they couldn’t handle,because they did not have the necessaryequipment, and we did. And damned if itwasn’t that same weird alloy. So I did thatone, too, and sent the result to the other lab topass on to their customer. What the hell wasgoing on? No way to be sure, but I suspectmost strongly that our customer sent theweird sample to us and the other lab as a wayto check up on both of us. Had either labreported it as “in spec” for what they had toldus it was, they would have known we werefaking it (a constant problem with theshoddier commercial laboratories). Or maybethey were just double-checking by sending itto two labs. I don’t know if they everdiscovered that in fact one lab did bothanalyses.

* * * * *Rodney Leighton wonders if “ADVENT

would be interested in novels set on the highseas and in Europe long ago, with a captain ofone of the last sailing ships who happens tobe a necromancer . . . ?” The author lives inthe U.K. and has not been able to find apublisher. The answer is no. Adventspecializes in nonfiction about science fictionand fantasy. We fill a niche that the propublishers don’t want to bother with, becausesales would be too small. We aren’t interestedin competing in the fiction market, because ifa fiction book is good enough for us, it is alsogood enough for the regular pro publishers.The lady should keep trying, and maybe get adifferent agent.

To be sure, we did publish a fiction booknot too long ago: Doc Smith’s HaveTrenchcoat — Will Travel (2001, hard cover,$20). This is a private-eye novel and threeshort stories, all previously unpublished andcomprising all of Doc’s fiction that is neithersf nor fantasy. Advent published it for itsassociational interest with the field while thestories are quite readable, they are notworld-beaters, and we would not have beeninterested had they been written by anybodybut Doc Smith (or some other sf icon).

* * * * *Letters from Rodney Leighton and Robert

S. Kennedy mention the failed lawsuit byMichael Baigent and Richard Leigh againstDan Brown, claiming that The Da Vinci Code

was based on their idea. Like Kennedy, Iwonder why they thought they had a case.There was a fundamental contradiction here.Had their book been presented as fiction, theyjust possibly might have had a case thatBrown stole their plot. (Though usually onecannot copyright a plot or idea; what iscopyrighted is the particular arrangement ofwords in which the plot is worked out.) Butthese blockheads presented their work ashistory. If it really happened, then anybodycan write about it. It’s as if the first person towrite a novel about Osama Bin Laden and9/11 were to then claim that nobody elsecould write novels about that subject.Perfectly absurd!

Dan Brown did in The Da VinciCode what a lot of “counterfeitspy” writers do; he said “this is anovel but all the background istrue”. If anyone complained,“Well, it’s just a novel.” AsStanley Baldwin said, “Powerwithout responsibility” and I’dguess they sold themselves, too.

— JTM

From: Trinlay Khadro July 14, 2006Post Office Box 240934, Brown Deer,WI 53224-0934 USAtrinlay63@wi.rr.comhttp://stores.ebay.com/sillykitty

Sorry my LOC has been somewhatdelayed. I’m somewhat behind on all mycorrespondence. I try to LOC zines as soon asI get them, but sometimes that isn’thappening. If anyone has sent me a zine andI haven’t LOCced, I’m still interested in yourzine, my life has just been somewhat insane.

Uncle passed away February 28th, and thefirst weekend in May we had the estate sale.The whole time in between I was over doingit almost every day, trying to clear out hishouse for the estate sale. My mom is theactual executor, but like most of the familyresponsibilities for Uncle, she had officialresponsibility, but I was stuck with the heavylifting. (My parents live in Indiana, and I liveabout 5 minutes from Uncle’s house.) Thehouse has been sold, to a young couple, andI’m hoping they have as many happymemories there as KT and I have.

The sale went well, and what art (thatUncle had made) that hadn’t been claimed byfamily, was quickly snapped up by

Page 28 August 2006 Alexiad

DEALERS. So posthumously Uncle may besomewhat famous, even if just locally. Hetaught art for nearly 30 years in variousMilwaukee High Schools. I don’t think heappreciated his own work very much at all . .. like many artists, we look at our own work,and see where it’s not quite right . . . and lookat the work of others and see mostly what’sgood about it. (For example, I’m still reallytickled to see some of my drawings in print,or when I sell a piece, or get strongly positivefeedback on it.)

Eventually I’ll be putting some of the leftover stuff from the estate up on Ebay. Ifanyone is interested in Depression Glass orporcelain from Occupied Japan email me ordrop me a line. (trinlay63@wi.rr.com) Ihaven’t even photographed any of it yet.

All the over doing it, and stress triggereda fibromyalgia flare up, and now it looks likeI might also have arthritis on top of it all.

KT is learning how to drive, and shouldbe ready for her road test in September orOctober. I’m looking forward to having herdrive ME places. :)

If anyone out there knows Lisa Mason,Milwaukee fan and librarian, she is currentlyfighting breast cancer. This week was her lastround of chemo, and depending on her teststhis week, they’ll soon be starting radiationtherapy on her. Any prayers or well wishingsin her direction would surely be appreciated.

Please pass the following along. (Don’tforward anymore if it’s after July 4 of 07)Hopefully it will inspire folks to get theirannual tests and exams, even if they think itdoesn’t really matter for them. Some of myfriends are also having health problems fromthe “too busy to go see the doctor” (or “toobroke to see the doctor”) syndrome delayingtests that should have been done earlier, orfollowing up on little problems that haveturned out to be signs of big problems.

I’m having (on top of the usualfibromyalgia) a year of abnormal test results,(re-testing and more coming soon. ) Tests thatcame up normal a year ago (Mammogram andpap) are coming out abnormal/messed up thisyear. Yesterday I was back at the doctor for abiopsy, and I won’t really know anything for8-10 days.

It’s scary how quickly these things cansneak up on a person. I really didn’t realizehow important these “stupid annual tests” areuntil mine came up abnormal.I thoughtbecause I didn’t have a family history forthose cancers it didn’t really matter . . .

In any case, I thought that maybe we allneed a heads up health wise, and a reminderto get ourselves checked out at least annually:

http://www.thehpvtest.com/30plus/choose_to_know_bracelet.aspx

https://www.maketheconnection.org/order_beadkit/

h t t p : / / w w w . k o m e n . o r g / i n t r a d o c -cgi/idc_cgi_isapi.dll?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=298

(The second link has a free bracelet kit,each order gets a $1 donation from MERCKto support cervical cancer research. They’vepromised to donate to match the # of braceletkits given out. So even if you won’t use thebracelet kit, order one, and pass it along tosomeone who will. They can also be reachedby phone at 888-447-8266)

Now back to the regularly scheduledLOC. (Thursday this week I’m going forfurther tests to find out if I need to worry ornot. I’m also waiting to see if I can getcoverage through the state’s GAMP.)

I have my disability hearing coming uplater in July, hopefully that will go well.

re: Monarchist news- Archduke Dominicof Austria-Hungary could just as welltelecommute? (Presuming he enjoysarchitecture work and/or the income.)

Dragon w/one O- Do any of these booksbring up the expense of the feeding andgeneral care of a large sapient saurian? Itseems that the environmental impact of adragon only comes up in stories where thedragon is the problem to be solved. (Theimpact on herds and the maiden population.)They’re very big and carnivorous, so howdoes this relationship with humans evenoccur? (Pern eventually gets around toexplaining it.) They’re so cute when they’rebabies?

Yes, Novik frequently toucheson the problems of feeding thedragons. At one point Temerairehas to live on camel meat. He’snot flying ten thousand miles tosmoke a camel.

Rural King: I’ve seen some of thoseToobs @ the local surviving 5 & dime:Winkies. When I manage to go out that wayit’s usually for art supplies, which they carry

in limited supply, but often have in sorts orcolors not carried elsewhere. They have someunusual kitchen tools as well.

Inkheart sounds like fun, particularlysince it seems to compare well to PrincessBride. We’ll have to hunt it down.

Joy of High Tech — Oddly enough I’veseen something on the restoration of cast ironbuildings in New York. PBS or the Discoverychannel probably. I have an amulet made ofmeteorite metal, it’s rather tiny and cast intoa Bodhisattva (Avalokitesvara).

In parts of the world blacksmithing isassociated with magic/sorcery. (Iron smiths inAfrica and weapon smiths in Japan inparticular come to mind.)

I recall reading about the Coelacanth as akid & being quite mesmerized by the idea ofa living fossil. I think at that same age I wasalso a big fan of dinosaurs.

Brad Foster: We’d love to see a photo ofDuffy and her fannish cat wings. You mightalso want to send such a photo tocuteoverload.com (It’s addictive, I try tocheck it every day . . .. just for a cute boost.)

Sheryl: I took your LOC to the vet withus. They’ve been doing the injection to theleg anyway for a long time, and it turns outthey use the same version of the vaccine thatyou recommended and have been for sometime. She cried all the way there in the car, Isuppose she realized that we weren’t goingvisiting, since Uncle passed away inFebruary. She was not a very good girl at thevet this time, she even ended up Yeowlingand trying to bite the vet. I think she prefersthe female vet to the male one. On the wayhome though she forgave me for her bruiseddignity and is wearing her new licence tagwith pride. It matches her eyes. :)

Joe re cmt Jan: I think the idea is to wrapthe cat in said towel and then slipping theblintz cat into the carrier.

Jan I thought I WAS thinking ofMorgaine’s sidekick — It’s been a long timesince I read the books, and easy to scramblenames in my memory. It’s not what it used tobe.

I suspect a “cat whisperer” would mostlysay that we just need to love and accept themon their own terms. Cats are trainable butoften there is the element of “I’ll do that IF Iwant to . . .” I know Megumi loves me, Idon’t need her to fetch or do tricks or comejust because I call her. But sometimes she’lldo all those things.

Dogs have owners, Cats have staff.

I ended up with seasons 1-3 on DVD ofSamurai Jack as a birthday gift in late April.I’m waiting semi patiently for season 4 tocome out.

I finally got a look at the box for “TheTale Of Genji” videogame, IMHO it shouldbe called the “Tale of Yoshitsune” to avoidconfusion w/ the other ‘Genji’. (The Heianera Genji had the name as a personalnickname. Yoshitsune would be more like“Prince of the Genji” as it was a nickname forthe clan of which he was leader though nearlyit’s sole survivor.)

Robert L: Sorry the Sam’s club idea didn’twork out for you. He’s in Indiana, I’m inWisconsin. My local Sam’s doesn’t do oilchanges, it turns out the best deal locally isMidas.

Rodney: Yes Elric enjoyed going to visitUncle. Any heaven that wouldn’t take dogs,ferrets, cats or other beloved beasties is noheaven. (Remember the old “Twilight Zone”episode with the old hillbilly and his hound?)I’m doing OK really. Yeah, I’m admittedlyone of those strange people who finds deepco m p anio n sh ip in a n imals , and Ianthropomorphize all over the place. :) That’swhat I get for watching things like Lassie onTV as a small child. You’d be horrified toknow that not only does Megumi sleep on thebed, she sometimes hogs it. How a 7.5# catcan take up so much space is a mystery. :)I’ve found her not only allll streeaaached outto take as much space as possible, but alsounder the covers with her head on the pillow.I’m not sure she realizes she’s a cat. :)

There were times I wouldwake up lying on my side on theedge of the bed. Sulla would besleeping up against the small ofmy back. And then there’s Lisa’sdream about the furry quicksand. . .

Robert K- re United 93 . . . For me atleast, this event is too fresh and painful towant to see or study even through the moviesjust yet. I don’t think it’s a 40's market at themovies anymore. With tickets going foraround $8 people are looking forentertainment rather than education. Themovie would probably reach a largeraudience as a televised event. Lately cash istight for me anyway: (Health concerns and noInsurance at this point). If I see any movie,it’s because friends have called and said

Alexiad August 2006 Page 29

“We’re going to see__________? Would youlike to come along?” Even then it’s likely towait till it hits the 2nd run discount theaters.)

I will hopefully have some new art to sendout soon, but I haven’t been doodling somuch these days. I’ve been busy knittingaway.

From: Martin Morse WoosterJuly 13, 2006Post Office Box 8093, Silver Spring,MD 20907-8093 USAmmwooster@yahoo.com

Many thanks for Alexiad 27. I knowyou’ve given a short explanation in private,but could you explain how “Dominic vonHabsburg” is related to the real Habsburgsand how he gets to be called an archduke? Ithought the only archdukes and archduchesseswere the direct heirs to the imperial throne ofAustria.

Dominic is the great-grandsonof Archduke Leopold, the next-to-last Grand Duke of Tuscany.Leopold was the grandson ofLeopold, later Holy RomanEmperor, son of Franz I andMaria Theresa. All maledescendants of Franz I andMaria Theresa and their childrena r e A r c h d u k e s ( o rArchduchesses) unless theyrenounce the title or descendfrom one who did.

Robert Kennedy: Boondoggles cansometimes indeed be useful. I took theBaltimore light rail to get to Balticon thisyear. The trip was slow but pleasant andcheap. The light rail is certainly efficient forwhat it is, but there are probably cheaper andless tax-draining ways to accomplish similarmass transit goals, such as having dedicatedbus lanes in an existing highway. I enjoyriding the Baltimore light rail, and much ofthe trip goes through pretty country, but theproject is still a boondoggle.

Johnny Carruthers raises interestingpoints about the latest fall of Amazing Stories.I never saw Amazing during its PaizoPublishing incarnation, which shows you howlousy its distribution was. I agree thatsomeone will resurrect this title eventually,but it probably won’t be Dell or Sovereign. Ithink the failure of Science Fiction Age — themost successful startup sf magazine in many

years — has made Sovereign wary of addinganother sf magazine to their portfolio. And Iget the sense that Asimov’s and Analog arelimping along, somewhat profitable but notbig money makers like the Dell crosswordpuzzle magazines. Wildside might be able topublish Amazing if their portfolio isn’talready overextended (I think they have eightmagazines). DNA seems to be in seriousfinancial trouble, with Science FictionChronicle skipping issues and their othermagazines not publishing at all.

Rodney Leighton brings up the issue ofDUFF and TAFF reports. I believe none oftheAmerican TAFF winners have, in fact, writtena report. Some may have published bits andpieces in places, but no one has done so. (Andwith those 200-pound airfares, why shouldthey? England’s not as exotic a place as it wasin the 1950s.) Two British TAFF winnershave published TAFF reports — JamesBacon’s Worldconicomicon, which was quitegood, and Tobes Valois’s “report,” whichactually consisted of other peopleinterviewing Tobes and getting prettyinarticulate answers. The only DUFF report Iknow about from recent years is JaniceGelb’s. I remember that Gelb said that theDUFF money enabled her to travel first classon a trip she otherwise would have madeanyway in coach, but hey, she wrote a report— which is more than most have done.

Martin Tudor did also; but hehad to pay for his own trip, AbiFrost the previous winner havingspent the money she raised andthen discovered that All Fandomwas plotting against her. I thinkshe made maybe one restitutionpayment.

— JTM

From: Robert S. Kennedy July 18, 20061779 Ciprian Avenue, Camarillo, CA93010-2451 USArobertk@cipcug.org

Thank you for Vol. 5, No. 3.On July 11, 2006, the Los Angeles Daily

News Obituaries printed that a woman wasborn on July 8, 9126 and died on July 5,2006. A typographical error? Maybe.

See H. Beam Piper’s “Flightfrom Tomorrow” (1950), one ofthe many works by him now

available on the Gutenberg website:

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/p

I hope the woman wasn’t tooradioactive.

For the 6 time I was the only person in ath

movie theater. This time was a real surpriseas the movie was X-Men: The Last Stand.

I would like to recommend a movie—TheLost City. Yes, I know that it has nothing todo with SF. To say that it is about Cuba is anunderstatement. If you can’t see it in atheater, then rent it when it is available. Onmy scale of 1-5, I gave it a 5+.

The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach(2005 for the English translation)—I found anold note to myself to obtain this novel and didso from the library. It’s outstanding and Irecommend it highly. Orson Scott Card hadit translated from the German to English byDoryl Jensen and it appears to be an excellenttranslation. I only had one problem and that’swhen one of the characters used theexpression “over and out” which is incorrectradio usage.

Engaging the Enemy by Elizabeth Moon(2006)—I have read most of the novels byElizabeth Moon. Like E. B. Frohvet said inhis review of the two prior novels in thisseries (Vol. 5, No. 2, p. 12), I too enjoyMoon’s military SF. I can hardly wait for thenext book in the series. For anyone whoenjoys Moon’s novels and has read the twoprior novels in this series, this book is a must.

A number of weeks ago there was a reportthat Oxford Ancestors had informed a Floridaman that DNA testing indicated he had asignature quite close to that of GenghisKhan’s That was incredible news. On June21, 2006, the Los Angeles Daily Newsreported that the man was suspicious becausehis male ancestors were British. He hadanother test done by Family Tree DNA withthe result that he had no connection toGenghis Kahn. One of the tests must bewrong. If the second DNA test is accurate it,then it is a serious black eye for the accuracyof Oxford Ancestors. Some of you mayremember that a few years ago I had DNAtests done by Oxford Ancestors and theyappear to be accurate. Also, Bryan Sykes theauthor of The Seven Daughters of Eve (2001)is connected to Oxford Ancestors. (I have thebook and it is outstanding. The book was

reviewed by Joe.) This apparent DNA testingfailure could put a big question mark on theaccuracy of DNA testing. Not a happy thingto happen.

Several weeks ago the History Channelhad two excellent programs. First was TheTemplar Code which had good coverage ofThe Knights Templar. Second was Mysteriesof the Freemasons: The Beginning ofAmerica. I purchased both DVD’s so as tohave the presentations without the breaks. Inthe one about the Freemasons, S. BrentMorris, Ph.D. makes numerous appearances. Joe previously made mention of Morris inrelation to The Twenty-Fifth SherlockHolmes/Arthur Conan Doyle Symposium. Asdid Joe, the program refers to Morris as aMasonic Historian. No mention that Morrisis 33º GC [Grand Cross] Scottish Rite.

Other appearances were made by DanBurstein (editor of Secrets of the Code [that’sThe Da Vinci Code]), Christopher Knight (co-author of The Hiram Key), David Shugarts(author of Secrets of the Widows Son thatattempts to guess what Dan Brown mighthave in his next book that will be about theFreemasons), and Stuart Beattie who is theDirector of the Rosslyn Chapel. The programincluded excellent coverage of the connectionof the Knights Templar to the Freemasons. Itwas a bit off concerning the 33º by notmentioning that there are two levels. One isthe Honorary 33º and the other is the Active33º. Also, they made mention of GeorgeWashington’s wife, son, and daughter. As iswell known, George Washington did not haveany children. They would have been hiswife’s children by her prior marriage. Foranyone interested in the Knights Templarand/or the Freemasons, I highly recommendboth programs.

Washington’s wife’s son was apaternal ancestor of Mary Lee. Mary’s mother was a relative ofmine, which is why I was so upsetby what the AWB did at Lee’sinauguration in The Guns of theSouth.

In addition to the TV programs mentionedpreviously, as a result of my regular programsbeing on vacation I’ve started watchingNumbers. My reason for watching it the firsttime was that it concerned Indians trying tocover up the fact that there were other peoplehere along with, or prior to, the Indians.

Page 30 August 2006 Alexiad

I would like to add my recommendationsfor the following books reviewed by Joe:SPIN by Robert Charles Wilson (p. 8); OldMan’s War (p. 9) and The Ghost Brigades (p.10) by John Scalzi (as Joe knows, Inominated Old Man’s War for a HUGO andScalzi for the Campbell Award.); The TrueStella Awards by Randy Cassingham (p. 13);and The Force of Reason by Oriana Fallaci(p. 14). Fallaci does her own translating fromher home language of Italian into English. Oriana Fallaci is one of my heroines.

From the library I’ve ordered The Three-Pound Enigma (p. 17) reviewed by JimSullivan.

Now, I’d like to put in a very strongrecommendation for One Nation UnderTherapy reviewed by Joe (p. 13). For anumber of years I have wondered about the“ T r a u m a C o u n s e l o r s / C r i s i sTherapists/Trauma Specialists” who seem toappear out of the woodwork and descend likelocusts whenever there is some crisis/disaster,real or imagined. How did people survivebefore they came into existence? It’spsychological intervention whether it’sdesired or not. The authors call it“therapism”. Special attention should begiven to Chapter 6—“September 11, 2001:The Mental Health Crisis That Wasn’t”.

A&E has an excellent program—“ColdCase Files”—that is the real thing and notwhat appears on CBS. The cases usuallyappear in 30 minute segments, but can beshorter or longer. On July 1 A&E presentedthe case of Michael Crowe. In January 1998in Escondido, California, 12 year oldStephanie Crowe was murdered during thenight and the police were sure that her brother14 year old Michael was the killer. Policeofficers browbeat, harassed, threatened, andlied to Michael. Under extreme pressureMichael confessed just so that the policewould stop coercing him. Two of Michael’sfriends were also charged. It became obviousto any reasonable person that Michael and hisfriends were innocent and that another personwas the prime suspect. The police involved,however, ignored the prime suspect. Later,one good Escondido police officer picked upthe case and became convinced that Michaeland his friends were innocent and of theidentity of the real murderer. He put his ownjob in jeopardy by following the case. Fellowpolice officers told him to back off. TheDistrict Attorney refused to review the case. Finally, the California Attorney General’s

office took over the case and the real murderwas convicted. My conclusion is that thepolice officers involved and the DistrictAttorney should have been sent to prison. Ifthis case interests you, do a Google searchwhich will come up with a lot of sites.

Janice G. Stinson: Yes, of course I meantBasal Cell Carcinoma and not Basil Cell. It’san excellent example of the problem ofbecoming sloppy and dependent on Spell-Check. Basil is quite upset that I wouldconsider him to be a carcinoma in need ofexcision. J

Joy V. Smith: You’re welcome.Trinlay Khadro: Thank you. My

condolences to you on the loss of your uncle.Sheryl Birkhead: Thank you.Rodney Leighton: Thank you.Joseph T Major: I mentioned “Marrs”

because I knew that you would pick up on itand hopefully make some comment aboutTexe Marrs. A number of years ago Ipurchased a couple of books from Texe to seewhat he was about. Periodically, I receivemailings from him. The latest concerns,among other items, his newest book, CODEXMAGICA: Secret Signs, Mysterious Symbols,and Hidden Codes of the Illuminati. The manis either a wacko or a fraud. I’m not surewhich, maybe something of both. He hasbeen publishing for years which means thatthere must be people who believe his crap.

There is another Marrs out there—JimMarrs. He appears to be into conspiracies,UFO’s, and alien visitation. I don’t know ifJim and Texe are related or not.

Personally I enjoyed The Da Vinci Code,both the novel and the movie.

Taras Wolansky: Cecil B. Currey, Ph.D.,the author of Code Number 72/Ben Franklin:Patriot of Spy? (1972, Prentice-Hall, Inc.),was “a Professor of Early American Historyand Culture at the University of South Floridaand a Benjamin Franklin Scholar.” He alsoauthored another book on Franklin—Road toRevolution: Benjamin Franklin in England,1765-1775 (1968). (In this book he refers toFranklin as America’s Leonardo Da Vinci.) I found some eight books by Currey at theUniversity of California. The latest one was1999. This is all I know about Currey and Idon’t know if he is still alive or not. Anyway,neither he, nor Code Number 72, is a joke. My impression is that Currey presentsBenjamin Franklin as the man and not themyth.

Currey also wrote EdwardLansdale: The Unquiet American(1998) and Victory At Any Cost:The Genius of Vietnam’s GeneralVo Nguyen Giap (1997), and thewebsite for the latter speaks ofhim in the present tense. Thebook Edward Lansdale wasdenounced by L. Fletcher Prouty,which is a pretty goodrecommendation.

— JTM

Lloyd G. Daub: OK Lloyd, sendsomething that Joe can publish so that youdon’t always appear as WAHF.

From: Sheryl Birkhead July 15, 200622509 Jonnie Court, Gaithersburg,MD 20882-3422 USAcatsmeouch@yahoo.com

As I imagine you hove heard, Barbaro’sprognosis has been changing on a daily basisand no one can say what will be happeningeven in the near future, let alone the longerterm. It is small consolation that all theoccurrences were things that had beencovered and the best possible treatmentsundertaken to try to avoid things such as thelaminitis. We shall see.

We have lost Jim Baen and rich brown — the list for LA grows.

Ah, I can see I miss out even more buynot having cable — don’t know much at allabout the series Rome. You can’t get the samewarm fuzzy feeling from a synopsis as youcan from actually seeing a series — yeah . . .RSN.

Schirm’s style continues to evolve — nice.Lisa: congratulations on becoming the

proud owner or a Toob armadillo — soundsas if your menageries are fairly extensive. Ialso have a collection of Pocket Dragons (byTexas artist Real Musgrave who is retiringthis fall, I believe) — in my lawyer’sbookcase. I actually have duplicates of somesince a friend bought them and then left themto me. I have not really bought them in quitea few years-but was just looking at a few ofthe pocket dragon websites and was floored tosee that the first one I bought (and promptlybroke a toe off the clawed chair intransporting it home from Texas) — andwhich I also hove the friend’s duplicate — isselling for anything up to about $2500. I havealready told my sister not the think that shelf

of figures is merely el cheapo cute figurines,just so they never get sold off 2/$1.

I’d like to see Real Musgraveon a panel with the astronautStory Musgrave.

Ah — I have never heard of the Akhal-Teke — I need to see about remedying that. Iwould think that, as desert bred, they wouldtend to be small — with small surface area(but, ahem . . . camels . . . ?) — but if theywould handle dressage they have to beheavily muscled--again, need to go look andsee what I can find.

Does the Reese’s cereal taste like thecandy? . . . well, you know what I mean. Iwas not all tempted to try the caramel-added(was tempted to say caramelized, but that is atotally different situation) cup and even .lessinterested in the white (yeech) chocolateformulation. Lately, in an attempt to kick (orat least gently nudge) the chocolate habit, Ihave been indulging in one miniature of theextra dark (60%) Hershey’s chocolate a day.Because I do not care for the dark chocolate,I am hoping to substitute one for the other ..but on a lesser scale (and then at some nebulous point find the milkchocolate too sweet — yeah . . . sure . . . ) an uphill battle it truly WAS. I really liked thetiny model of the robot and had vagueponderings over where it might end up . . oneBay perhaps?

Trinlay — FYI just yesterday I got a newsrelease in the mail from Intervet promotingtheir new (the first as far as I know) licensed3 year feline distemper vaccine. Most of usjust use the yearly one — but triennially inmost cases. I would not let this influence meto change manufacturers just because of theone vaccine — but it is a portent of things tocome. While manufacturers may believe (asdo we as practitioners) that the vaccines arebest used this way — it takes at least a threeyear study and challenge to show that the 3year (which may actually be identical to theannual formulation) interval is effective. I canonly hope that more manufactures areactually already running these tests. If I didnot say it before — I believe you can find thevaccination guidelines from the AmericanA sso c . o f Fe lin e P ra c t i t io ne r s a twww.aafponline.org.

Personally, I think both TAFF and DUFFshould remain as funds. I admit that I did ask,once upon a time, one fund winner what

Alexiad August 2006 Page 31

actually ended up coming out of the pocketand was told to allot about $1000. So, evenwith all the subsidy that goes on, if you aretruly strapped for funds, even a win might notmake it actually an affordable trip. I admitthat I have no idea what any other winnershad to cover from their own funds — and ofcourse the destination and length of stay allaffect the bottomline, but I still feel they havea place — if onlyforfanish feelings if nothingelse.

Still mucked it up with my scrawl—adjuvant is the term — we’ll get thereeventually! And my brother turned on theA/C — so I hope the typing is a better (or atleast more accurate) read . .

This is being typed on an old used laptop— a Mac (called a Wallstreet) that I got oneBay for my price — then promptly doubledwhat I spent when I broke it — yeah, my fault— but the directions on how to add RAMseemed so easy. Indeed, the RAM additionwas easy — but I was so eager to get it putback together to see if I had done it right thatI jammed the keyboard in improperly andthen managed to destroy two keys trying toremove it and . . . but you get the idea. So,now I can type while away from the desk —aha a tech typer — the more things changethe more they stay the same . . . just moreexpensive.

I think Rodney ought to go for theelectronic fanzine, but since I do not frequentzine sites, I doubt I’d be reading it. Wonder ifhe has been an apa-hack? For what it is worth,my mother had a plethora of ministrokes thatwent undiagnosed because it looked likeAlzheimer’s — and during the workup forthat it was (last test run, of course) found thatthe carotids were almost totally occluded —and that was the root cause of the strokes —but by then she had lost so much weight thatshe was no longer a surgical candidate. I tookthis to “heart” — since her cholesterol hadalways actually been low — and last yearstarted having a carotid Doppler test done —and paying for it myself since my physiciandoes not see any reason to run it. They ratethe results from normal to see a doctor now— and I rated one step down from normal —so some changes, but not serious . . . at leastnot yet.

My niece is having healthproblems; numbness on her leftside. She is taking medicine formultiple sclerosis but the doctor

is not ruling out a stroke. Iasked her if she had such a testand she said she had lowcholerestol, so there wasn’t anyneed.

I’m sure there is a list somewhere of theTAFF winners who have written their tripreports — and I have tried to get most ofthem, but while they say they will write one,there is no stick to offset the carrot of the trip.I think that most fen want to write a report,but quite often life just gets in the way. Manyof them seem to get things done withprodding and, if I remember correctly, severalhave done unconventional reports (such asslideshows at conventions).

I have given up on getting any responsefrom LA — so much for needing to work upany fillos — maybe I can spend more timetrying to get ideas for the pastels . . . Japanhas not been interested — to date, so it looksas if I’ll have another year not to try to comeup with PR pieces!

Henry(Welch) I am told that Australialicorice is the very best. If I remembercorrectly, the local Trader Joe’s (and henceall the stores in the chain I presume) sellssome, so there must be interest.

Ah — Bon Ami — their logo is a chickand the slogan (checked the can I have in thekitchen) — “Hasn’t scratched yet”. Wonderhow many people know what it means??

I’d like to see Lloyd Daub pub a zine.

You know he did, many aeonsagone, MSFire. It was a clubzineand he did many good things in it. Lloyd & the gang, your audienceawaits you!

— JTM

Thanks for thish!

From: Sue Burke July 21, 2006calle Agustin Querol, 6 bis - 6D,28014 Madrid, Spainsue@burke.namewww.sue.burke.name

I survived the World Cup, the soccerextravaganza comparable to the Superbowlexcept it lasts longer, involves the wholeworld, and serves up greater bombast. In spiteof that, Americans aren’t crazy about soccer.

Much time was wasted on pseudo-psychological analysis to guess why. The

BBC announcers joked that Americans onlylike to play games where they get to make upand enforce the rules. I think the quality ofBBC announcers has taken a nosedive; theyno longer know history.

Soccer isn’t as popular in the USAbecause it’s a relatively recent sport. TheUSA developed sports fever before most ofEurope and was busy with baseball, hockey,football, auto racing, horse racing, and evenbasketball before soccer began to spreadoutside of Britain; the first baseball WorldSeries was in 1882, but the first soccer WorldCup was in 1930. There simply wasn’t roomin the American fan calendar for anotherspectator sport. But in the rest of the world,soccer is often the only big-time pro sportthere is, so it achieves popularity bymonopoly.

I’m sorry, we were too busyworrying about Barbaro’s leg andsorry he and Bernadini hadn’tbeen in all three races; thatwould have been anotherAffirmed-Alydar confrontation!

A Spanish commentator offered anotherpossibility: the unpredictability of soccer. Inbaseball, football, and basketball, the bestteam usually wins. But in soccer, too muchdepends on luck and referee calls. Too oftenthe best team does not win. “For theAmerican mentality, educated in the strictmeritocracy of pioneer Protestants for whomsuccess is always the fruit of personal effort,”he wrote, “this is depressing.”

One more possibility: soccer, though it iscalled “the beautiful game,” really isn’t asexciting as baseball, with its dramatic pitcher-batter duels, or football, with its explosions ofaction at every scrimmage. Soccer isinteresting, but without the do-or-die playsand, even more importantly, the regularpauses that allow viewers to make kitchenand bathroom expeditions. Rarely does socceroffer the climax of the final two minutes of afootball game, intentionally designed to beriveting. Americans don’t just likeexcitement, we make excitement.

The USA, with two losses and one tie,finished 25th out of 32 teams, betweenTunisia and Iran. Spain finished 9th and wonthe Fair Play Trophy. Neither of the twofinalist teams, France and Italy, came close todeserving that title. French player ZinedineZidane won the Best Player Trophy, even

though his head butt of an Italian player gothim thrown out of the final game and was hislast act as a player, since he retired as plannedafter the World Cup. He will have to performthree days of community service as a penalty.

The next World Cup will be in 2010 inSouth Africa. In August in Spain, almosteveryone goes on vacation, many for thewhole month, and most of them to the beach.My husband and I will be here at home. Heplans to study for a test of Spanish fluency,and I will be reading and writing. We will beenjoying the peace and quiet of Madridwhere, in the middle of the month, half thepopulation is out of town. Tourists try to fillthe vacuum, but most of them wind up at thebeach, too. Watch out for the stingingjellyfish and the biting bluefish on theMediterranean coast.

From: Milt Stevens July 20, 20066325 Keystone Street, Simi Valley,CA 93063-3834 USAmiltstevens@earthlink.net

I particularly noticed the list of choices forbest novel in the Hugo competition in AlexiadV5#3. It isn’t actually signed which probablymeans it is by Joseph. However, getting thetitle wrong on the George R. R. Martinnominee doesn’t sound like a mistake Josephwould make.

Unfortunately I did. As Isaid, I couldn’t bring myself toeven get the book, much lessread it.

— JTM

From: Taras Wolansky July 31, 2006100 Montgomery Street., #24-H,Jersey City, NJ 07302-3787 USAtwolansky@yahoo.com

Reading the June, 2006, Alexiad, I wonderabout the extent to which fandom is like afamily.

A lot of the material is the kind of stuff Ioccasionally get from relatives; people’shealth, and so on. I must confess, I’m onlymoderately interested in this kind of materialeven when it is actually from my real,biological relatives.

Null-ABC by H. Beam Piper? Is this anunpublished work, or would I know it underanother title? If the former, I’m surprised itwas overlooked, during the Piper fad of the

Page 32 August 2006 Alexiad

1980s.

Nope. Astounding, February-March 1953, by Piper and John J.McGuire.

"Since Darkover has blizzards insummer, how come it isn’t completelyglaciated?" My impression was the blizzardswere in the mountains. In any case, the snowhas to build up from year to year, for glaciersto form.

Review of Robert Charles Wilson’s Spin: "Wilson portrays the gradual eroding ofhumanity’s reserves of order, so to speak,under an unprecedented and cosmicstress." I don’t get it. Why would ahyperspace bubble around the entire Earthhave this kind of effect?

John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War "lacks thedrive of [Starship Troopers] and the maliceof [The Forever War]". Well put. It’s alsoless well-written than either of its models. Iwas disappointed.

The description of Kenneth Oppel’sAirborn and Skybreaker reminded me ofHayao Mizayaki’s classic animated movie,Island in the Sky (a.k.a. Laputa), with itsworld of great flying machines. Anime issomething of an underground influence onSF; for example, Babylon 5 retells largesections of the more profound Legend ofGalactic Heroes.

Speaking of influences, parts of NaomiNovik’s excellent Throne of Jade remindedme of the fierce, Afghan battles of M.M.Kaye’s romance, The Far Pavilions. Working her analogy with sailing ships, Ithink Novik misses the point that a greatcaptain need not be a great sailor: he has asailing master for that. So she imagines thatwomen have to be made captains in the RoyalDragon Navy (or whatever it’s called)because certain breeds of dragon will bondonly with females. More realistically, in suchcases the captain would be a man, the pilot, awoman.

After seeing Novik on panels at Lunacon,I worried that the Temeraire trilogy would betoo PC to enjoy, but happily this turned outnot to be the case. Though I’ve not yet readthe third book.

"I never saw an anarcho-capitalistexplain how the free-market system of lawenforcement would cope with sharia." Idon’t follow; how would this differ fromdealing with a criminal gang or enemy state?

Because anarcho-capitalismassumes a uniform legal systemcoming about through a versionof the market, and sharia worksdifferently. “We have proofthat your clients raped ourclient.” “Oh, under our laws shewas a whore and deserved it.”

Alexis Gilliland: I think you’re right. IfJudas did what the "Gospel of Judas" says hedid, he wouldn’t have written the Gospel andspoiled his effect. Of course, in a sense, hisactions were part of the plan, raisingquestions of free will vs. determinism. Thenagain, it didn’t really matter to the plan justhow the authorities got their hands on Jesus.

E.B. Frohvet: "The American militaryav oided bombing H iroshima w ithconventional weapons, as they wanted a‘clean’ target for assessing the effect of theatomic bomb." This strikes me asimplausible: how could they know inadvance that such a weapon would exist, andthat they would be using it against Japan? Instead, one of the factors that helped pushHiroshima to the top of the list was that ithadn’t been already bombed. Another wasthat there was no POW camp there.

Martin Morse Wooster: All the big nameactors who worked in Crash for a share of theprofits are being screwed, it appears.

Paul Haggis should have had the characterbuy a gun on the black market, not in a gunstore subject to waiting periods. Maybe heneeded some liberal brownie points; themovie diverges from PC orthodoxy in somerespects.

Trinlay Khadro: Xena is a fictionalcharacter; Mulan’s existence, more than 1500years ago, is also hazy. The 12th centuryfemale samurai, Tomoe Gozen, is betterattested; presumably she was way off at theend of the bell curve. Of course, firearmsmade battlefields somewhat “friendlier” towomen.

Janice Stinson: If the Worldconsupporting membership were ten bucks, wewould have a bigger problem than we alreadydo with people buying multiple membershipsto nominate and vote for an unworthy Hugocandidate.

Like The Guardsman.— JTM

From: AL du Pisani August 1, 2006

9 4 5 G r a n d P r i x S t r e e t ,Weltevredenpark 1709, Republic ofSouth Africaakaine@intekom.co.za

Thank you for sending Alexiad. It makesme feel a bit wanted in the world. A goodthing, as I am feeling a bit unwanted rightnow.

E.B. Frohvet’s review of A Fish Caught inTime was especially apt, as I have a interest inthe story of the Coelacanth. Especially theSouth African connections. After the initialdiscovery, the story has been moving awayfrom South Africa. Recently, it have beenmoving back. A couple of years ago abreeding colony of Coelacanths was found offthe SA coast. In waters about 100 metresshallower than any other place they have beenfound. Which may call into question some ofthe accepted knowledge of the Coelacanth.

I did not plan to take leave, although Iknew that I was in need of a break. But thenthe job I was chasing was in a company thatwas postponing hiring people, and I foundmyself with two weeks available. So I wenton holiday to my family in the NorthernCape.

I managed to rest, and rebuild somerelationships. But every time I finish a visit tothe Northern Cape, I despair of my country.Part of it is the road. It is terrible, especiallythe parts between Wolmaranstad andChristiana, where the roads are full of filledpot-holes, and with a couple of places wherethe tar disappears. Part of it is hearing abouta community where too many people havegiven up hope that voting will bring a betterlife. And the businesses are dying.

Once I got back, the job I was chasingevaporated, as in the company may haveclosed down and is not returning my calls. Istill have one more prospect, but it is at leasttwo months away from anything. Almostmakes me want to give up the search. But Ihave been too unhappy for too long for thestatus quo to continue.

In South African news, Jacob Zumacontinues to make headlines. It seems that hehas gone in for the “All publicity is good, aslong as they spell my name right” school. Atleast one other candidate may have emergedfrom the shadows, making his attempt atbecoming the next President of the ANC, attheir meeting early next year. (When ThaboMbeki reaches his term limits. President ofthe ANC is generally regarded as

automatically becoming the next President ofthe country, once an election is held.)

But, this is Africa, and things are not asstraightforward as in some other parts of theworld. See, once you have made it known thatyou are interested in the top ANC job, youmove back into the shadows, after claimingthat you are not really interested in the job,but will accept the will of the Party. And theneverything happens behind the scenes. Whichfrustrates political analysts, commentators andjournalists no end.

One of the major problems we have beendealing with in SA, is the matter of Crime.Which is not as simple as it seems, since partand parcel of crime is a political dimension.One of the previous big wigs in the Police hasbeen stating that to fight crime, four processesare necessary: Laws (promulgated by theGovernment and accepted by the People), theCriminal Justice system (Police force, courtssystem and prisons), the Economy andValues.

Laws have been problematic. Not onlybecause in some instances the Governmenthave been hell bent on making sure that theirvision of utopia sticks, but because so manylaws have been hampered by bad execution.

Let me digress: A Opposition leader of theApartheid years has recently published hispolitical memoirs. In it he states that thecorner stone of the Apartheid system, legally,was the Population Registration Act, whichwas supposed to put every South African intothe right racial box. All other race relatedlaws assumed that the Population RegistrationAct was working perfectly, and built on thatfoundation. Part of the reason Apartheid fell,was the the Population Registration Actworked only imperfectly. Once it wasadmitted that the foundation stone wascracked, the whole edifice of laws built on itfell.

And, he says, the current ANCgovernment have followed the exact sameprocedure, with the Employment Equity Actas the cornerstone. (The Employment EquityAct tries to ensure that the employed reflectsthe racial composition of SA society, whichmeans that Blacks and women tend to begiven preference in hiring.) And he sees thatthis system too shall fail, in the exact sameway and for the exact same reasons as theApartheid.

The South African criminal justice systemis somewhat of a joke. The courts haveenormous difficulty in prosecuting crimes,

Alexiad August 2006 Page 33

and too often evidence are “lost”. The Policeare under enormous pressure, and somepolicemen are doing yeoman work. But othersare just clock punchers. And, unfortunately, itis often the diligent that get killed inconfrontations with criminals. Furthermore,too much resources thePolice need are either not getting to them, orbeing wasted. Such as patrol cars being usedto ferry policemen living long distancesoutside their precincts to and from work.

Going to private enterprise has its owndifficulties: Because their union was angrywith the Government’s plans with regards tothe railroads, security guards have beenstriking for two months. A violent strike:About 50 security guards working in defianceof the strike had been murdered during thattime. The places that still had security guards,had them working in plain clothes, andkeeping a low profile.

Strangely enough, the one part where the

(communistic, socialistic) ANC has beendoing quite well, have been the economy. Thecomment that one local commentator made isthat it is a bad thing when the most efficientstate department, and the best to deal with, isthe tax man.

The last leg, that of Values, has been themost problematic. It took ten years for peopleto realise the South Africans do not seem toshare common values. Or regards values asnegotiable. The various churches have notbeen able to put a vision of shared unifiedvalues forward. Partly that is because ofhistorical reasons, such as the support or notof Apartheid. Partly it has been due todisunity in intra church associations, such asthe long delayed unity talks of the NG churchfamily. (Which seems to have reached acouple of breakthroughs, recently.)

Some time ago, a black doctor dealingwith AIDS patients decided that he cannotcontinue to treat symptoms of illnesses, but

that he need to treat the root cause of it all: Alack of common values. (Since he is aChristian, his vision of the right values isChristian.) He got a group of supporterstogether, and they got funding (lots offunding) from a bank and some other civilinstitutions. They launched the Heartlinesproject: A series of eight one hour dramas,each looking at one common (Christian)value. These dramas are currently beingbroadcast on prime time television, and seemto be having an effect. The one thing I likeabout the dramas seen so far, is that there areno easy answers.

This has always been the issue with someof these type of shows: That the message isbelaboured to death, and the situation is triteand predictable. These dramas are not. Theissues are real and heavy issues, and thepeople in them have to deal with realproblems: How do you forgive somebodywho killed your child in a traffic accident?

In two months time we might start to seea change in attitudes. Because we need achange in attitudes. And I may need to changemy attitudes.

I really hope that we can South Africaright. Because I live for hope and a betterfuture. One where some day I can visit themoon.

WAHF:Lloyd Daub, with various items ofinterest.

Page 34 August 2006 Alexiad

THOUGHTS ON TIME TRAVELby Paul Gadzikowski

A MOVIE TRAILER

Whiteness.Then there appears a man in an exquisite

black suit, with a fine scarf from BergdorfGoodman. This is TRUMAN CAPOTE(Philip Seymour Hoffman). He beginsspeaking, in his high mincing voice.

CAPOTE: After I finished my book onthe Clutter murders, In ColdBlood, and became famous, Iwas at somewhat of a lossabout what to do next. Ac o r r e s p o n d e n t f r o mWashington suggested that Igo into the business of that sortof investigation. If it meantwriting for those dreadfulpublications with the pictureson the covers of half-nakedwomen tied up and threatened,I would have passed, but Mr.Shawn was so very supportive.Then a friend of his suggestedI look into the case of thisdoctor.

We see CAPOTE walking down a prisoncorridor, being carefully searched, and shownto a door.

GUARD: You be careful now. Theydon’t call him “Hannibal theCannibal” cause it’s a neatrhyme.

CAPOTE: I’ve read the trial reports.

He enters the room. HANNIBALLECTER (Anthony Hopkins) is in a smaller,clear cage inside the larger cell. CAPOTEstops, examines the scene, takes a breath, andwalks to the chair and table which have beenplaced there.

CAPOTE (v.o.) I t w a s d i f f i c u l tinterviewing the man, but Ipersevered.

The cell again, with CAPOTE beinglectured by LECTER:

LECTER: A census taker once tried totest me. I ate his liver withfava beans and a nice Chianti.

CAPOTE: Which one? It’s so hard to geta decent Chianti these days. So much of it is the cheap winethey have in those dreadfulfaux-Italian restaurants.

LECTER seems taken aback.

CAPOTE (v.o): S m i t h f r i g h t e n e d m ebecause he was me. ThisLecter . . . he’s somethingelse, something detachedfrom the human race.

It is somewhat later. LECTER is leaningforward, as close as the bars will permit,hectoring, menacing:

LECTER: What possible reason could Ihave for co-operating withyou?

CAPOTE: To have your story told. Tohave people know what it wasthat brought you here, broughtyou to this, what influencedyou to be this way.

LECTER: You can’t reduce me to a set ofinfluences! You’ve given upgood and evil for behaviorism,Mr. New Yorker WriterCapote — nothing is everanybody’s fault! Look at me,Mr. Capote! Can you say I’mevil? Am I evil, Mr. Capote?

Capote looks away, fumbles with hisscarf, then gathers his wits.

CAPOTE: Yes. Yes, you are.

The scene fades to white, then blackletters appear on the screen:

Anthony Hopkins Philip Seymour Hoffman

in cold lamb

Co-Editors: Lisa & Joseph MajorCo-Publishers: Joseph & Lisa MajorWriters, Staff: Major, Joseph & Major, Lisa

Art: What we are mainly looking for issmall fillos. Your fillo will probably bescanned in and may be reused, unless youobject to its reuse.

Contributions: This is not a fictionzine. It is intended to be our fanzine, so beinteresting.

Material in Alexiad is copyright © 2006. All rights reserved. Upon publication, allrights revert to the original contributor, butwe reserve the right to use any item more thanonce, unless otherwise specified by thecontributor. All letters sent to Alexiadbecome the property of the publishers. Anymaterial by the editors is available to otherfanzines if they provide proper credit andsend a copy.

Available for The Usual (letter ofcomment, trade, contribution). Sample issueavailable upon request. Back issues $1;subscription $10/year. Alexiad is alsoavailable by email in either text or AdobeAcrobat .pdf format.

ALEXIADc/o Lisa & Joseph Major1409 Christy AvenueLouisville, KY 40204-2040 USAjtmajor@iglou.com