"Some Pig."

I have always loved Charlotte's Web. Something about that cute little piggy and the spider who saves his bacon just warms my heart. I was musing about it to myself this morning and it occurred to me that if E.B. White had decided to write Charlotte’s Web present day, Wilbur might have ended up with a Facebook page. Or maybe in 1948 E.B. White conceived the idea of social networking through spiderwebs, as opposed to the WORLD WIDE WEB. Not only did she write one of the best children’s stories of all time, but she was a science fiction genius! Okay, I'm stretching, but it's not unprecedented.

In 1865 Jules Vern wrote From the Earth to the Moon and essentially described with nearly flawless accuracy the 1969 Lunar landing, sans clever taglines, right down to the rockets. He did this because he was a genius, (duh!) and because he applied what he knew about math, science, and explosives in 1865 to his writing and speculating process.

And now they finally found the diamond planet that the evil queen tried to steal in Rainbow Brite back in 1985. Genius!

I have always liked science fiction as a genre, despite it's ability to terrify the crap out of me. In 1942, Arthur C. Clarke (2oo1: A Space Odyssey) published his three "laws" regarding his observations about science thus far:

1) When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

2) The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

3) Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

4) Aliens and Super-advanced smart computers are scary. (Okay, this is mine. It's based on years of reading science fiction like Space Odyssey and H.G. Well's War of the Worlds and watching Predator one too many times)

Green Eggs and Good Omens

I cracked open an egg today and the white was this odd bright yellow neon color. Thinking I was nuts, I cracked open a second one and low and behold: normal. Apparently this isn't too uncommon and the overwhelming internet response was DON'T EAT IT. Since I didn't feel like taking on a challenge today, I didn't. ( Good story, right?)

Right now I'm reading Good Omens by Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman and am enjoying it immensely. If you like Neil Gaiman, Martin Millar, Terry Pratchet and/or the Apocalypse you'll probably enjoy it more than I did, and here's why; As much as I hate to confess this I am a speed-reader and I sometimes might neglect to read every word on the page. With this book, it's even worse because I notice the hilarious footnotes and can't seem to keep my eyes from straying towards the bottom of the page. Then I spend way too much time trying to locate the aster-ix* that applies to the footnote I've already read before going back to making actual progress. Now I love footnotes as much as the next person, (they make reading fun!) but they slow down my speed reading tremendously. These days it's all about progress, and I love progress!

If you end up reading and liking Good Omens, along those lines I would also recommend American Gods, by Neil Gaiman and Stephen Brust's, To Reign in Hell. You're welcome!

* Apparently this is the proper spelling, according to spell-check. Who knew?!