Dispatches from the Flying M

Capitol Tree

Today the tree that will stand in front of the United States Capitol as the Capitol Christmas Tree came to our town, on its 4,000 mile tour from the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest to Washington DC.  The tree is an 85-foot blue spruce, and it appears to be a beauty.  We couldn't see much of it--only one end of the very long trailer is open for viewing.  But we could see the top, and partway down its considerable length, as you can see in the picture below. 

This is the first time in history that Arizona has provided the tree, so we felt privileged to be able to visit with it for a few minutes and wish it well on its journey. We signed the side of the truck, along with thousands of our fellow Arizonans. In addition to this tree, Arizona is providing 80 trees for use inside the Capitol, and Arizona's schoolchildren have made almost 10,000 ornaments to hang on them.  The creator of one of those ornaments will travel to Washington to light the Capitol Tree with Speaker Pelosi.  

     

Proof that Scientology damages the brain

A quote from noted Scientologist John Travolta:  "Someone came up with a good idea - it was a remake of 'Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid' - and there was a rumor that we were gonna do that, and I said to Tom [Cruise], 'It's not a terrible rumor, it's not a bad idea,'"

No, John.  That is a very, very bad idea.  Very, very, very bad.  Possibly the worst idea you've ever had.  The original Butch is a masterpiece of filmmaking. There's nothing in it that needs to be updated, modernized, redone.  And you and Cruise are no Newman and Redford, by a long shot.

Bad idea.  Bad, bad!

Zorro--finally!

I'm a big Zorro fan.

I wrote a story for Moonstone Books's Tales of Zorro anthology. While signing prints for the limited edition (which isn't the "finally" in this post's title, as it is still not published) I got to meet Guy Williams, Jr., who wrote the book's introduction.  Guy is, of course, the charming son of Guy Williams, who was Disney's TV Zorro fifty years ago--and remains, to this day, the Zorro I see in my head when I think of Johnston McCulley's great character.

Not only did I get to hang with Guy for a while, but I got to play with one of his dad's swords.  As a long-time fencer and sword buff, that was a thrill rarely matched and never to be forgotten.

Now (and here comes the "finally") Disney is releasing the first two seasons of the classic TV series on DVD.  Here's a review from Pendragon's Post.  Needless to say, these are on the Christmas wish list...if I don't break down and buy 'em for myself before that.

Bread bad

No, seriously, I love bread.  Especially baguettes. 

But in a rare event--two science posts in a week--I have to share this one, about the baguette that overpowered the Large Hadron Collider. Take a look.

Ringtail

One of the most reclusive creatures in the Sonoran desert is the ringtail. They're Arizona's state mammal. About the size of a squirrel, they're elongated by an extravagant tail often compared to a feather boa. They're nocturnal, fierce predators of small rodents, lizards, snakes, birds and insects, although they'll also eat fruits and berries.  They're magnificent climbers, with rear feet that rotate 180 degrees so they can go down vertical faces nose-first.  The picture here is from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, one of the greatest sources of information about all the creatures inhabiting this part of the world.  Please take a look at their page, since I've borrowed their photo. 

We don't actually live in the Sonoran Desert, but in a high desert transition zone. We've never seen any evidence of ringtails in our neighborhood, and the only couple I've seen outside captivity were roadkill.

Until last night.

We've had some strange nocturnal visitor for several nights. We started calling it the jackalope because when it runs across the roof it sounds much heavier than the birds or rodents who usually come calling. The dogs, which usually ignore such things, have been upset by it on several occasions, resulting in loud fits of barking that wake us up in the middle of the night.

Last night, they barked and I went out to see what they were barking at.  Up in the rafters over the front sidewalk, I saw it, crouching on a beam, its generous tail tucked around it.  It looked at me. Recognizing it for the unusual visitor it was, I went back to the door and called the rest of the family. By the time they could get out without dogs, it got tired of waiting and sprang from the beam into the carport, a flash of gray-brown fur and that striped tail.

Later, the dogs barked again.  I went out and heard a strange noise that seemed to be coming from our outside freezer, in the carport: a scratching noise, accompanied by a bizarre sort of bark.  After ascertaining that it wasn't inside the freezer, we realized that there was a space beneath and behind the freezer, an open area for the appliance's motor (or whatever it's called on freezers).  I tugged the freezer away from the wall and the ringtail darted out into the night. This time the whole family got a look at it.

We don't want to discourage anything that eats rodents and snakes from living here, but inside the freezer is not the best place to have a ringtail. And living too close to the house is just going to drive the dogs nuts and interfere with our sleep.  But I'm delighted that we actually have one in the neighborhood, and hope it feels free to come around whenever it wants to. It's an amazing little creature, and since we don't have chickens it's not likely to predate anything important to us. I hope he comes back soon.

Congrats Speaker Pelosi

It wasn't just her, of course.  And there's a long way to go.  But she got to bang the gavel and announce that a national health care reform bill passed the House, for the first time since Republican Teddy Roosevelt started pushing for one a hundred years ago. It's also probably the biggest piece of social legislation the House has passed since Medicare in 1965. It'll go down in the history books as a big night for the Speaker.

We don't know what the bill will look like by the time it gets through the Senate (if it does) and is then reworked by the Dr. Frankensteins on the reconciliation committee.  Hopefully it'll have the House's public option but lose the Stup(id)ak Amendment.

But if it works like it's meant to, it'll ensure the profitability of private insurance companies by requiring millions more people to buy insurance, while preventing them from boosting their profits by denying coverage to the people who need it most. Like many businesses, they may find that they can make money by providing good service at a reasonable price.  It's unfortunate that it took major legislation to make them understand that.  The bill will reduce the deficit while saving lives, and that last part is the most important--if it prevents Americans from dying because they can't get coverage (and prevents them from going bankrupt because of unavoidable health issues) then it's a good thing.

Going up?

I'm no scientist, as anyone who's read my science fiction works can tell you.  But this is too cool not to link to: space elevators aren't as far off as you might have thought. Take a look.

Congrats to the GOP

The Republicans won two governorships last night--in Virginia, which was no major surprise since Bob McDonnell was ahead in the polls all the way through, and in New Jersey.  Incumbent NJ Gov. Jon Corzine was deeply unpopular in that state--so much so that Chris Christie, who is in no way ready for that kind of job, was able to knock him off.  It'll be interesting to see how NJ voters feel about Christie once they've had him in office, or if he's able to grow into the job. Virginia is one of the purplest of states these days, always electing a governor from the party that doesn't control the White House.

Perhaps more importantly, the Republicans lost in the NY-23 special election, which was the race that they had nationalized to a greater extent than either of the governor's races.  Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty, Dick Armey, Gary Bauer, Rudy Giuliuani, Fred Thompson, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck--the hard right, tea party element of the Republican Party have been pushing hard for the victory of this Conservative Party candidate, even forcing aside the Republican Party's own candidate, Dede Scozzafava, who just wasn't teabagger enough for them.

The fact that Hoffman didn't live in the district, or know anything about issues facing the district, didn't faze them.  They threw the biggest of their guns behind Hoffman, ran roughshod over the candidate from their own party, and they lost, turning the seat over to a Democrat for the first time since the Civil War.

McDonnell in Virginia is a hard-right guy, but he didn't run like a teabagger.  Hoffman ran like a teabagger and lost, despite every advantage.  What's the lesson?  If anything, yesterday proved that Republicans, despite being down to 20% of the voting public, can still win elections if they act like civilized human beings, but not when they act like crazy nutjobs.

Oh, and savor these words from Rush Limbaugh, because after all, he asked us to:

"If Hoffman wins -- and polls suggest that he will -- the race there will be dismissed as an outlier.  Here's how they're going to categorize this -- and I'm talking about the media. I'm predicting the media coverage tonight and tomorrow on New York-23.  

"They'll say that the right wing concentrated all its hate and all its anger and all its resources on a congressional race that is of little national importance or consequence. They will portray this as the Republican Party being fractured and divided with even greater problems down the road.  The state-run media will further tell us that the battle in New York-23 was really just a fight among Republicans, not about Obama or his policies; and that the far right, while successful in this district, will have difficulty extending this victory into other districts and states because they will have driven so many independents and moderates out of the party.... Folks, I want you to print these words out. I want you to get the transcript off my website.  I want you to print these out, I want you to distribute them, I want you to carry them with you, and we'll just see how close I am to being right.' "

Thanks for the incisive insight, Rush.  As always, right on the button.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-kelly/dud-baby-dud-the-lesson-o_b_345049.html

Janey in Amber

I've mentioned this book here before, but it's November now--that snuck up on me--and so the book will be released soon.

The book mentioned above is called The Stories in Between , published by Fantasist Enterprises, an independent publisher of illustrated fantasy books. It's a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the great indie specialty store Between Books, and it's edited by that store's owner, Greg Schauer, along with Jeanne B. Benzel and W. H. Horner.  The authors in it are all people who have appeared at the store. My story is called "Janey in Amber."  Other authors represented in the collection are Jonathan Carroll, Cathrynne M. Valente, Jonathan Mayberry, John Passarella, and more.  It looks like an amazing book, so give it a look.

If you're near Delaware, drop by the store on November 14th for the big launch party featuring several of the contributors!

World Fantasy--it's a wrap

I'm home from the World Fantasy Convention.  As seems to be standard after a convention weekend, I'm tired and achy (and this time, have a sore throat that didn't steal my voice away during the con but that makes me very glad it wasn't one day longer).  There's much work to be done, but I'm so foggy-headed that composing a semi-articulate blog post is a challenge.

The convention was a good one in primarily in its social aspects, seeing old friends, making new ones, etc.  WFC has lots and lots of professionals in attendance, so those who are strictly fans are able to meet and interact with the pros on a more personal, intimate level than at bigger cons, and those of us who are pros can find time to get together with one another.

We got in on Thursday afternoon, checked into the hotel, and saw some friends during that process, then more when we went downstairs to pick up our registration materials for the convention, and looking around the dealer's room.  That night we went to Original Joe's for dinner, which is a place I used to go when I was living in San Jose for college and after.  San Jose has changed a lot--Original Joe's, not at all. After dinner, we ran into Russell Davis and Mike Stackpole in the hotel lobby, and sat and chatted with them for awhile.  Norman Partridge and Tia Travis showed up a little later, and others came and went throughout the evening.

Friday, Maryelizabeth had to attend the convention's business meeting, while I stayed in the room and worked.  That afternoon we visited the San Jose State University campus, and checked out the neighborhood I used to live in way back when.  Later we had drinks with editor and friend Jen Heddle, and then were off to a party for the Orbit publishing imprint, then back to the hotel for the mass autograph session.  I sat at a table with pals William F. Wu, Mike Stackpole, Nathan Long and Bob Vardeman. Peter Straub was across the aisle, Robert Silverberg had the longest lines that I saw, over in the corner.  I swapped some books with the terrific poet and writer Rain Graves, and visited with several other writers, editors and agents, as well as chatting with and signing for various fans.

Saturday I had a solo lunch at the Jack in the Box where I once almost witnessed a gunfight over a nonexistent onion ring (but that's a story for another time) and was interviewed on video (more about that when/if it's posted online), but the day's high points came later, at the launch party for the Hellbound Hearts anthology, where I got to sit next to the extremely talented and charming Sarah Pinborough, and signed lots of books for lots of people. I was the first to leave (which, since I was in the corner and backed against the window, meant going over the table). But I had to put on my tux for the Howard Morhaim Family Dinner, which was held at Paolo's and was wonderful, start to finish.  Lots of friends were in attendance; the ones we spent the most time with were Patricia McKillip and her husband Dave London, Amber Benson and Adam Busch, Alice Henderson, and Kate and Katie from the literary agency.

Sunday was a busy morning--up and breakfast and pack and load the car and check out of the hotel, then to a 10:00 panel as an observer, then to my 11:00 panel as a participant. Everyone on the panel was interesting, but the best part was that I got to sit next to the awesome Jane Lindskold.  From there it was a race to the rental car, then to the airport, a flight to L.A., a flight to Tucson, and the 2+ hour drive home.

Back home, a couple of sub-freezing nights have not killed all the grasshoppers, crickets and their kin, but have done a number on the grass and everything that was blooming before we left.  There's evidence of coyote visits.  The surroundings are as beautiful as ever, and it only takes a few days in a city to make me deeply appreciate the ranch all the more.

So a busy few days. Today I don't think there's enough caffeine on Earth to keep me conscious and productive, but I'm trying. Tomorrow should be back to the routine.