Buried among the news of Barack Obama presidential victory comes word that Michael Crichton has died. He was most famous, perhaps, for Jurassic Park. That book was the only of his books I ever read, and I very much enjoyed it. I read the book well before the movie was ever made and though I enjoyed the…
It was announced this morning that Randy Pausch, author of the best-selling The Last Lecture, had died. I watched the YouTube version of the lecture, as well as his time management lecture, and I read his book. Brilliant guy, tragic loss.
It was reported over the weekend that Thomas M. Disch committed suicide over the holiday weekend. I read only one of his books, Camp Concentration way back in October 2000, while sitting in a jury pool in a Hollywood courthouse. I was never called to server that day. According to my list, I wasn’t that…
I just read the sad news that Arthur C. Clarke has died at the age of 90. He was the last surviving member of the Big Three of science fiction writers, Robert A. Heinlein and Isaac Asimov being the other two, both of whom died more than a decade ago. I’m not sure I can…
As several others have already reported, Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, died today. For a brief time in my life, say from about age 10-14, I played quite a bit of D&D. I stopped playing at about the time I started reading more, and noticing girls, but during the time that I did…
I had a fairly productive work day today and that felt good. Tomorrow, I’ll be in meetings for much of my work day. I ran over to the bookstore today to see if they had the August issue of Locus in yet, but they didn’t. While there, I did a bit of browsing and added…
I’m still behind in the news and discovered during a meeting that I just attended that Tom Snyder has died. I used to watch his late, late night show and always thought he was terrific. I think that Harlan Ellison appeared as a guest on his show more times than anyone else. Over at the…
Grandma died ten years ago today and I still remember the day as if it were yesterday. She died at 11:05 AM and I, having stayed up all night sitting with her in the hospital, had taken a short nap and woke up as people began to stir around me.
Of the 7 U.S. Presidents that have been in office since I was born, Gerald Ford is the one about which I know the least. He was the first President to come into office after my birth (Nixon was President when I was born.) I have read biographies of Nixon, Carter, Reagan and Clinton. I…
I awoke this morning to the sad news that the dean of science fiction, Jack Williamson, had passed away at his home in Portales, New Mexico. Jack Williamson had a remarkable career in science fiction. He published his first story, “The Metal Man”, in 1928 and has continued to publish stories and novels in every…
I received word this morning that Tricia’s dad, Ed, passed away on August 19 after a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer. I hadn’t heard from Rich or Tricia since they headed back to Southern California after Rich’s graduation from his surgery residency, but I had email from Tricia this morning with this sad news.