THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
10/10/14 -- Vol. 33, No. 15, Whole Number 1827
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
Science Fiction and Fantasy Art Shows
Craftsmanship a Thing of the Past (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
Where Did All the Slide Rules Go? (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
The Creature from the Black Lagoon (comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
THE ROAD (film review by Dale L. Skran)
THE ANDROID'S DREAM by John Scalzi (audiobook review
by Joe Karpierz)
Sir Richard Francis Burton (letters of comment
by Scott Dorsey, Tim Bateman, Peter Trei,
Keith F. Lynch, and Jette Goldie)
Antibiotics (letters of comment by Scott Dorsey
and Keith F. Lynch)
This Week's Reading (CAT PEOPLE and HOMENAJE A AGATHA
CHRISTIE: EL CASO DEL COLLAR) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
==================================================================
TOPIC: Science Fiction and Fantasy Art Shows
The Society of Illustrators in New York City will have a display of
"The Art of Leo and Diane Dillon from October 21, 2014, through
December 20, 2014. See http://tinyurl.com/void-dillon for
details. (They are ending their Spectrum exhibit of science
fiction and fantasy art on October 18.) There is a $10 admission
fee ($5 for seniors and students).
The Women's Rights National Historic Park in Seneca Falls will have
a display of "It's Alive! It's ALIVE!: Women in the Genre of
Science Fiction and Horror from Frankenstein to The Hunger Games"
from October 4, 2014, through October 31, 2014. See
http://tinyurl.com/void-wori for details. There is no charge;
however Seneca Falls is about a five-hour drive from central NJ.
==================================================================
TOPIC: Craftsmanship a Thing of the Past (comments by Mark
R. Leeper)
True craftsmanship seems to be a thing of the past. People used to
take pride in their work. These days people just want to get done
and get paid. I thought I was in the minority feeling that way.
No, at least there are other people who are bothered. The website
RT (you'd think they could design a web page that said who they
were) run the following headline:
"Rash of New Jersey suicides blamed on poor bridge design"
http://rt.com/usa/192712-suicide-bridge-railing-rally/
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Where Did All the Slide Rules Go? (comments by Mark
R. Leeper)
[For the illustrations to work, this article should be viewed with
a fixed-width font.]
One of the film-and-book discussion groups I am a member of showed
the film DR. STRANGELOVE. That is Stanley Kubrick's apocalyptic
comedy about how our nuclear defenses could lead to the end of the
world. It is a funny comedy that still stands up after ... jeez,
it is fifty years. (Admittedly, if you are in the Air Force maybe
it never stood up. For them a slip-up such as is portrayed in the
film is impossible. At least that is what they tell us.) The
title character is predicting the effects of nuclear warfare with a
round thin disk in his hand. In a discussion afterward Evelyn
asked one of the guest visitors if she knew what this thing was.
It seems that if you are younger than forty or so you have no idea
what the circular thing did. At the time the film premiered anyone
who knew engineering knew exactly what that disk was for.
For that matter if you see engineers from the early days of the
space program, perhaps in documentaries, they often seem to be
carrying around white ruler-like slabs. Let us bring younger
people up-to-date. The disk and the slab are what are known as
slide rules. Prior to the Apollo Space Program, the space
administration did not have electronic calculators and did their
math with slide rules.
If you are younger than something like forty years old you probably
do not know what these slide rule things are. They are actually
computers, but not electronic ones. They are analog computers that
use length and distance to do simple computations. How do they do
that without electronics?
Let's start simple. You can make a small calculator with just a
ruler and a measuring tape. Suppose I want to add two plus three.
Let us create a small calculator from a ruler and a measuring tape.
On the ruler you can find the 3-inch mark. It is just three inches
to the right of the 0-mark. Now you take the measuring tape and
measure two inches further right. That brings you to the 5-inch
mark. So 3 + 2 = 5. It is a very small calculation of course, one
you could have done in your head, but the important point is that
you have created a device that did the addition for you. It told
you that 3 + 2 = 5. You could have put the 0 over the 2 and then
the 3 would be over the 5. 2 + 3 = 5. Two inches plus three
inches is five inches. My guess is that at this point you are very
unimpressed. But you actually do have a small adder that can do
simple sums and get the right answers.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Now take some label tape and rewrite the numbers on your ruler and
your measuring tape. Replace the 0s with 1s, replace the 1s with
2s, replace the 2s with 4s, replace the 3s with 8s, etc. Each inch
further out you go you double the number you write on the label.
So the ruler and the measuring tape no longer go 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
etc. Now they go 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc. Each inch to the right
you go the number doubles. On each to go from the 1 to the 4 you
go two inches to the right.
Now on the measuring tape move the 1 (formerly the 0) and put it
over the 8 (formerly the 3) on the ruler. Look two inches to the
right and the 4 (formerly the 2) on the measuring tape is now over
the 32 (formerly the 5). Your little calculator just told you that
8 x 4 = 32. Or you could have put the 1 over the 4 and then the 8
would be over the 32. 4 x 8 = 32.
1 2 4 8 16 32 64
1 2 4 8 16 32 64
The numbers in each of the rows above follow an exponential curve.
One inch to the right says you double. The top row slides back and
forth over the bottom row so the 1 in the upper row can be over any
number you choose in the bottom row. Once one of the numbers of
the upper row is over a number eight times as much, EACH of the
numbers in the upper row is over a number eight times as big.
8 times 1 is 8; 8 times 2 is 16; 8 times 4 is 32; 8 times 8 is 64.
Fill in a lot of lines with vertical lines to show their position
and you can get a fairly accurate estimate of the results of a
multiplication.
By the way, the same figure above says that 32/4 = 8. A slide rule
is just as good for dividing. A limitation of a slide rule is that
it does not give answers to many decimal places. But frequently
you do not need a whole lot of decimal places in a calculation.
Most slide rules had a straight slide that you moved back and
forward. The problem with that is some numbers would be off the
end of the scale and you had to reposition the slide to get it over
a number. Circular slide rules got around the problem by using
circular concentric disks so there was no end to run off of. One
of those was what Dr. Strangelove was using to do calculations.
The best slide rules were made mostly of bamboo, though plastic was
also common.
The Mercury space program's calculations were done on slide rules
because calculators were just coming along. Werner von Braun used
slide rules not electronic calculators. But when calculators came
along and the price dropped, nobody wanted to go through the effort
of using a slide rule when you could more directly have a
calculator do your calculation for you with a few button presses.
Once calculators were available people forgot very quickly what
slide rules were and how to use them. Today most people have even
forgotten that slide rules ever existed. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: The Creature from the Black Lagoon (comments by Evelyn
C. Leeper)
The other evening we had a true "Creature Features" evening,
watching THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954), REVENGE OF THE
CREATURE (1955), THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US (1956), and the
documentary "Back to the Black Lagoon". Following are various
random thoughts that occurred to me.
THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954):
- The film has great music, although the Creature's three-note leit
motif may be a bit over-used. "Back to the Black Lagoon" details
which of the multiple composers (Henry Mancini, Hans J. Salter, and
Herman Stein) wrote which parts; certainly the parts that re-used
old Universal themes by Salter from the later "Frankenstein" films
(the log-jam fight and Kay-in-the-grotto scene) are distinctive.
- The archaeology methods shown are the beginning are truly cringe-
worthy: they hack at the rock with a pickaxe and then snap off the
hand!
- Mark asked why the Creature reaches out of the water at the
beginning (other than to give the audience a glimpse early on).
- The institute the main characters are working for ("Instituto de
Biologia Maritima" is supposedly in Brazil), but the name on the
boat is in Spanish, not Portuguese, as are all the signs.
- The divers talk about equalizing pressure when they come up, but
seem to take all of about 30 seconds at the beginning of the movie,
and even less time later on.
- Mark (the character, not my sweetie) recognizes the need for
money, while David just thinks that is crass. This supposedly
makes Mark the bad guy, but it seems to me that in this he is just
being realistic.
- Is it "Maya" or "Maia" (two syllables or three?)
- Someone refers to the "Devonian Era, 150 million years ago."
Actually the Devonian is a Period, not an Era, and was more than
350 million years ago. (The categories, from longest to shortest,
are Eon, Era, Period, Epoch, and Age. The Devonian Period is part
of the Paleozoic Era.)
- I do not believe that there us an Amazonian rat as big as a
sheep (though there is a 24-inch-long rodent, the capybara). But
there is such a thing as the kamongo fish.
- Kay is wearing shirts with a man's buttoning (left over right),
but often with no pocket and looking more like a woman's blouse.
- There is bad rear projection at times.
- How does Kay's hair stay perfect in all that humidity? For that
matter, Kay's hair looks perfect even after she has been swimming
in the lagoon
- Why does Kay change into her swim suit and let her hair down when
the men are going to dive?
- The music sets up several "false tension" moments during the
first dive.
- How can the bottom of the lagoon be so well lit, yet no one ever
sees the creature?
- All shots where it is obviously Julie Adams swimming are above
water with nothing but water in the scene, making it obvious that
those were filmed in a tank, and the scenes showing the lagoon or
shot underwater are all with a double.
- Kay's suit reminds me of the suit described in SUDDENLY, LAST
SUMMER--revealing when wet.
- When Kay finishes her cigarette she just throws it into the
lagoon. I'm not sure which is more surprising to today's
audiences--that she smokes, or that she litters.
- Why doesn't the rotenone stun anything else in the lagoon?
- Why is Professor Lindenbrook in JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE
EARTH a good scientist for apologizing for having no proof but Mark
a bad guy in this for insisting "we must have the proof."
REVENGE OF THE CREATURE (1955):
- This re-uses the music from the first film (particularly in the
post-lobster-house chase), and some footage.
- The story is by the producer.
- The Americans' explanation of why the creature did not change is
circular--it did not change because sometimes things get stuck and
do not change.
- Almost definitely the bird the Creature grabbed was harmed in the
making of the movie.
- Someone says the Creature "should have died a quarter of a
million years ago." That is a whole lot more recent than the
Devonian Period. There were Neanderthals then, and archaic Homo
sapiens.
- Yes, that is a young Clint Eastwood.
- Joe is walking the Creature in Ocean Harbor to force air through
its gills, but what about the entire time the Creature was being
transported?
- How is the Creature able to jump so high?
- Why put the Creature in a tank with sharks?
- Humans use a bull prod for no reason on the Creature.
- They keep calling him a fish, but why? Eventually they figure
out he is almost human, but looking at him should be a clue.
- Helen's hair is so plastered it doesn't shift at all when she is
lying on the beach.
- The Creature seems to live in both fresh water and salt water.
- Professor Ferguson goes from being really worried about the dog
to not caring at all.
- I love the way the reporter talks about "the pretty young
scientist." Not.
- This is very much a King Kong story.
- The ending is identical to that of THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK
LAGOON.
THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US (1956):
- The women get progressively worse in the series: the first is a
scientist, the second a grad student, and the third a trophy wife
(who does redeem herself somewhat).
- She goes off on her own and does water ballet, resulting in
"rapture of the deep", when they are hunting a dangerous creature.
- They have pretty much stopped pausing when surfacing. (How deep
does one have to be to need to pause, and for how long?)
[-ecl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: THE ROAD (film review by Dale L. Skran)
There are some movies so grim that it takes me a long time to get
around to them, yet that I feel I must watch since I'm an
apocalypse film completist. One such is THE ROAD, based on a book
of the same name by Cormac McCarthy. THE ROAD reminds me a bit of
Phillip Wylie's TRIUMPH, which he wrote as a rejoinder to overly
optimistic nuclear war movies and books. In TRIUMPH everyone in
North America dies except for a small group in a fallout shelter in
the hills of New Jersey. The nuclear war is initially devastating,
and then the real damage starts.
In THE ROAD, a disaster of unspecified nature has created a state
of continuous winter with limited sunshine over apparently all of
North America. This disaster may have been a nuclear war, an
asteroid impact, a giant volcano explosion, or possibly some kind
of geo-engineering experiment gone wrong. The characters you see
have no idea, and aren't especially interested in finding out. Of
all the apocalypse movies I've seen, this one gets the sheer
difficulty of long-term survival right. Most real major disasters
end up with the Earth covered in a cloud of black soot and no
summer for decades, centuries, or longer. The steps your garden
variety survivalist takes are not remotely sufficient to survive
this kind of catastrophe. And, as the movie makes extremely clear,
the real challenge is fending off the other survivors as food grows
short, and then disappears.
Vigo Mortensen stars as an unnamed Man, traveling south on an
unnamed road, with his equally unnamed Boy, his son. It seems to
be about ten years after the disaster, and many of the small number
of remaining survivors have turned to cannibalism. Ammunition has
run low--Man is down to first two, and then one bullet in his gun.
Such a background could easily seem pointless, but McCarthy has
created a fable in which good shines brighter in the face of the
overwhelming darkness. The Man lives a simple faith--he and his
son are "the good guys" who are "carrying the fire." He admits
that on some level he is just another wandering murderer, but his
line is that he won't turn cannibal. He knows he is dying, but he
is determined to give his son any possible chance of survival.
This is a tale as old as time--the love of a father for his son--
written with a giant exclamation point in that the faith required
to continue on in such circumstances requires a kind of saintly
fanaticism. Mortensen is excellent as this grim survivor, and Kodi
Smit-McPhee equally good as the Boy.
Charlize Theron stars as Woman, the Man's wife. I've read most of
the book, and Woman has a larger role in the movie than the book,
but this in no way detracts from what makes the book compelling.
In her own way, Woman is even more dedicated to the Boy's future
than the Man, and certainly just as courageous. You'll also see
excellent actors like Robert Duvall and Guy Pearce in supporting
roles
There is a similarity between THE ROAD and the more recent and much
worse THE COLONY (2013). Both deal with survival in the aftermath
of a weather related disaster, and both feature mobs of cannibals
running after the main characters. Although THE COLONY is poorly
acted, features weak special effects, and has a pasted-on happy
ending, there is a similar level of realism about the difficulty of
surviving a major "Earth disaster" that leads to a long-term world-
wide winter. THE COLONY features the sort of approach that might
allow a significant sized group to thrive - underground bunkers
with sustainable power and the ability to grow food with artificial
light.
THE ROAD is a hard movie to rate. I guess I'd have to go for at
least a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale. The movie is rated R, and this
is a serious R. It is not so much the graphic violence as the
violence of the script that makes this hard to watch. This is a
movie about people with a very limited range of choices making
desperate decisions. Recommended only for those with a strong
tolerance for grim films. Children should not watch this movie.
Warning: if you see this movie, it may be the most grim and
depressing movie you will ever watch, and all the more so since it
is 100% plausible and possible. [-dls]
==================================================================
TOPIC: THE ANDROID'S DREAM by John Scalzi (copyright 2006 Tor;
copyright 2010 Audible Studios; 10 hours, 34 minutes; narrated by
Wil Wheaton) (excerpt from the Duel Fish Codices: an audiobook
review by Joe Karpierz)
I have been struggling all day with the idea of how I should start
this review. I know there are at least a few professional writers
who read the MT VOID, and I would guess that they *might*
sympathize with me, knowing that at some point during their writing
careers they've run up against a brick wall.
I mean, how do you start talking about a book in which a diplomat
from the planet Earth plans to disrupt negotiations with an alien
species by farting messages to that species' ambassador in the hope
of getting him mad enough that he messes up the negotiations to the
point that the people of earth get an advantage?
And never mind the fact that not only does the alien ambassador
collapse and die in the process, but the Earth ambassador does as
well.
I'm still trying to figure out whether John Scalzi, the author of
this silliness, was being juvenile on purpose, or maybe that's just
the way he was back in 2006 when THE ANDROID'S DREAM was published.
I can tell you that my wife was turned off by the whole sequence.
Me? Come on. I laughed and kept going, wondering what was coming
next. I also sort of figured that Scalzi is completely capable of
writing that kind of humor today, but chooses not to simply because
he really has grown up, although deep down inside that kind of
sense of humor is still running around hoping to get out.
So yeah, the ambassador from Earth causes the death of the Nidu
ambassador, but unintentionally dies himself (he certainly wasn't
planning on it anyway) and thus sets up a rather amusing tale that
refers to one of Philip K. Dick's more famous novels in the
process. Mind you, there's only a passing reference to it, but
it's there nonetheless, and we'll talk about it shortly.
So somehow, as the result of the death of the Nidu ambassador,
there is a void at the top of the Nidu governing hierarchy. Thus,
a ceremony will be held to crown a new head, and certain forms must
be followed, including the presence of a particular breed of sheep,
the Android's Dream. By the way, it's an electric-blue-colored
sheep, and at the point where we learn about the requirement for
the sheep we also learn about the "old literary reference", or some
such. Yep, Scalzi was referring to the famous Philip K. Dick novel
"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"
The whole thing would be quite silly if it weren't for the way
Scalzi cleverly worked in the concept of the Church of the Evolved
Lamb (you have to read it to believe it), and an advanced
artificial intelligence that helps our hero, Harry Creek, and the
"evolved lamb", Robin Baker--who is part human, part Android's
Dream sheep (you have to read it to believe it--yeah, I said it
again). Combine that with a dollop of military SF, and you've got
yourself quite a story.
Look, I don't think Scalzi wrote this with any major awards in
mind, although a few awards were thrown its way, including the
Seiun. Still, it was an amusing tale. To top it off, Wil Wheaton
was a terrific narrator. I can hear Scalzi's voice while Wheaton
is narrating--it's completely uncanny.
Do I recommend it? Certainly. I think you'll enjoy it and have a
heck of a time with it. You might even classify it as a Scalzi
"juvenile", just not in the traditional sense of that term. [-jak]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Sir Richard Francis Burton (letters of comment by Scott
Dorsey, Tim Bateman, Peter Trei, Keith F. Lynch, and Jette Goldie)
In response to Mark's comments on Sir Richard Francis Burton in the
09/26/14 issue of the MT VOID and subsequent letters of comment in
the 10/03/14 issue, various people write:
Scott Dorsey:
I've never read Riverworld, but when I was twelve I read the
Complete Arabian Nights translation (which is probably not
appropriate for someone that age), and when I was in college I read
A PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF A PILGRIMAGE TO MECCAH which I highly
recommend to everyone in the United States today.
I had no idea he was ever mentioned in any science fiction, I
thought he was mostly famous as the translator of the Kama Sutra.
Tim Bateman:
If you're able to read it, you're old enough to read it. New law I
just invented.
I'm not in the U. S., but [PILGRIMAGE will] go in my mental 'to be
read' file. [-tmb]
Peter Trei:
He had money problems, and the translations where sexed-up to sell
well and keep the pot boiling. [-pt]
Scott Dorsey:
As a twelve-year-old I thought that was just great. [-sd]
Keith F. Lynch:
The sex wasn't in the original?
Is there a more accurate translation? [-kfl]
Scott Dorsey:
I don't know [if the sex was in the original], but I will say that an
awful lot of it was in the footnotes, many of which are hilarious and
all of which are worth the price of the book.
In the case of the 1001 NIGHTS there is the Madras and Mathers
translation, which is somewhat dry and academic in comparison. [-sd]
Jette Goldie adds:
There is far more in the book of advice to a newly married couple
than just sex. There's a lot of advice on manners and how to run a
household. [-jg]
Evelyn notes:
Of the KAMA SUTRA, Wikipedia says, "Contrary to popular perception,
especially in the western world, Kama sutra is not just an
exclusive sex manual; it presents itself as a guide to a virtuous
and gracious living that discusses the nature of love, family life
and other aspects pertaining to pleasure oriented faculties of
human life." [-ecl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Antibiotics (letters of comment by Scott Dorsey and Keith
F. Lynch)
In response to Keith Lynch's comments on antibiotics in the
10/03/14 issue of the MT VOID, Scott Dorsey writes:
[Keith F. Lynch wrote, "People saved by antibiotics tend to be
older, on average, than victims of wars, the Holocaust, and the
gulags. So it's a reduction in the number of years of life
lost."]
Depends on the situation. Antibiotics save lives in wars. [-sd]
Keith responds:
I said "on average." Do you disagree? [-kfl]
Scott replies:
I don't know enough to disagree or not. More information needed.
[-sd]
==================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
CAT PEOPLE by Kim Newman (ISBN 0-85170-741-6) is a seventy-page
essay on the making, content, and effect of the 1943 film CAT
PEOPLE. Though directed by Jacques Tourneur and written by DeWitt
Bodeen, it is always referred to as "Val Lewton's CAT PEOPLE," and
part of what Newman examines--as indeed does anyone talking about
the film--is exactly how much creative input Lewton had.
The majority of the book (46 pages) is devoted to a shot-by-shot
analysis of the film--basically a commentary of the sort Criterion
or other high-class company would include on a DVD release. I'm a
commentary junkie--at least of those commentaries that add to one's
appreciation or understanding of a film. I have little use for the
director commentary consisting of "He was great. She was great.
The dog was great. The tree was great." Rather, I lean to
commentaries by film critics (e.g., Roger Ebert), or historians or
the actual people in historical or based-on-fact films (e.g. James
McPherson for GETTYSBURG, Homer Hickam for OCTOBER SKY, James
Lovell for APOLLO 13 and--in the best of both worlds--Sergei
Khrushchev for THIRTEEN DAYS). Kim Newman's "commentary" ranks
among the best.
(I found it odd that Newman describes Irena as "lightly teasing"
Oliver when she says, "Perhaps you have a picture in your room of
George Washington or Abraham Lincoln." This would no doubt strike
most people today as a bizarre idea, though it may have been more
common seventy years ago. What it reminded me of, though, was a
documentary about Gertrude Berg in which the documentarian comments
on how the television show "The Goldbergs" really emphasized the
"American-ness" of the Goldbergs: the wallpaper in their apartment
had a motif of red, white, and blue bunting, there was a portrait
of George Washington hanging on the wall, on so on. Molly Goldberg
may have had a portrait of Washington on her wall, but most people
did not.)
(The BFI has published similar books about several other films that
I would love to read: Alberto Manguel on BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN,
Christopher Frayling on THINGS TO COME, and Salman Rushdie on THE
WIZARD OF OZ. Whether they are available in the United States for
reasonable prices is the question. (I found this volume in my
favorite used book store in Northampton, Massachusetts--The Old
Book Store, which we have been going to for forty-five years.)
Six years ago in Tucson I bought HOMENAJE A AGATHA CHRISTIE: EL
CASE DEL COLLAR by Francisco Cuevas Cancino (ISBN-10 970-651-300-
0). I knew nothing about it other than it was a novel about
Hercule Poirot. A few weeks ago Mike Duncan started discussing
the French Revolution on his "Revolutions" podcast and covered "The
Affair of the Necklace"; when finally I picked this book up to read
it, it was quite the touch of synchronicity to discover that "El
Caso del Collar" was the very same "Affair of the Necklace"!
Poirot's doctor tells him he needs a vacation, and when he goes to
a travel agent, he ends up on a package tour to France. There he
gets hit by a taxi and ends up in the hospital. At this point I'm
thinking, "Oh, it will be like Josephine Tey's DAUGHTER OF TIME."
But instead, he gets discharged and then taken in a black limousine
to Versailles--but the Versailles of the Eighteenth Century. Now
it was starting to look like MIDNIGHT IN PARIS. At Versailles,
Marie Antoinette asks Poirot to investigate the affair and clear
her name.
As if this were not artificial enough, each chapter has a
"prologue" from the author's point of view in which he addresses
things the reader may find "peculiar": traveling by car to the
Eighteenth Century. Poirot changing hotels, and so on. (The
changing of hotels seems to echo Richard Matheson's time travel
approach in BID TIME RETURN.)
As if all this were not enough, Cuevas Cancino throws into the
story Oscar Wilde, Richard Attenborough, and Sylvia Sim, for no
good reason I could see. (Maybe I missed it in my reading of the
Spanish.)
It is unlikely that anyone reading this is going to run out and
read HOMENAJE A AGATHA CHRISTIE: EL CASE DEL COLLAR. Rather, these
comments are more to demonstrate the worldwide popularity of Agatha
Christie and Hercule Poirot, and of the merging of fictional
detective and real-life mystery. [-ecl]
==================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
All progress is based upon a universal innate
desire on the part of every organism to live
beyond its income.
--Samuel Butler