I've run across the Flash Gordon story in a couple of places. Robert Osborne at TCM mentioned it after a documentary they did that included interview material with Lucas.
And of course, when Flash finally got back on the screen, they had Danilo Donati, Fellini's costume designer.
It's hard to say what would have happened if Lucas had done the picture. It probably would have been better, except maybe for the costumes, but I wonder whether Lucas would simply have remade one or more of the serials with fancier effects. The film Lucas ended up making -- Galactic Graffiti or whatever it was -- was a story people hadn't seen before. As Bill Warren said, people fell in love with that movie, wanted to see it over and over (we sat through three showings on the second weekend, which was the last weekend the theater wasn't jammed past allowing holdovers), wanted to, in the manner of Trek, go live in that universe. And they did that in spite of some less than wunnerful dialogue and a rather out-of-place Yojimbo reference.
I don't know what he had in mind for Flash -- I doubt as he could have gotten away with doing it as a period piece, but there would be room for stronger characterizations and cool visuals (which the movie that was made had, due to good supporting players and Donati) without breaking anything. But I'm not at all sure it could have been turned into a franchise.
Vardibidian: Of course we have a War Book. It's about a goat.
This has been provided without DRM by Sarcasm On Demand.
Greg: You need about 24Kv to jump a one-inch gap. Dry air is a surprisingly good insulator, and in the desert, well.
Have been bemusedly looking at the Ads Picked by Google Apparently from Its Hinder Parts on the sidebar.
Over on "War with Them Guys" there was an ad for Ann Who Hath No Mind About Her's books, which was kind of amusing, but the best one was an offer of free copies of Memoirs of A Geisha, aimed at people who had only seen the movie, that concluded with "Offer Submission Required." Wow, I guess they read it.
And over here there are numerous ads for God, or at least his Googly associates. One tells me that "Jesus is the only way to Union," which fortunately didn't show up on the Montreal thread (and concludes, "the answer may suprise you," so I guess they're not hawking an inerrant text). Another asks me if I are righteous, and if I are sure I will go to Heaven, which for some people are two different questions, but the punchline has to be the site, which is "bjnewlife.com." Now, I do not believe there is any connection between one's state of grace and ability to write, and I would feel a lot better about my SoG if I did. But I think that someone offering religious commentary ought to be able to read for unintended content, especially if you are going to kiss somebody with the kisses of your mouth.
Jim: Of course, that would make sense. Thank you. And I'll bet the recoil system is cause for "consternation," too. (I'm old enough to remember the Popular Science article when "Spooky" first appeared (I do not use the other nickname, for obvious reasons), which, like all weapons described in PS of that era, was going to Win The War Before the Next Issue.
If they'd give up the rights, which I kind of doubt, it would be interesting to do a book of Future Weapons of the Past, reprinting the art and key paragraphs from PS, PM, MI, Modern Mechanix (I think the X made it futuristic). It's hard to say what the best (for specific values of that word) idea was, though it might well be the submersible fighter jet (which reappeared for decades; one could do a side-by-side gallery of the cutaway views).* Though my favorite art was a double-page, two-color spread (the style was like Gray Morrow's, and it might even have been him) of Our Boys hanging above an unspecified city on their Bell rocket belts, bazookaing the behinds off the Bolshies.
They were probably using Nucular Bazookies . . . no, wait, we really issued those.
But I digress, as usual.
*Though if the clearances could be had, an article on "Whatever Happened to the Submarine Fighter?" seems like just the sort of thing Smithsonian Air & Space would run, and probably draw a letter saying "It is not dead, but sleepeth. --Name withheld by request."
Marilee: Which "guy from the Mary Sue story"? The Star-Ledger is the biggest paper published in New Jersey, and this guy is their TV columnist, so if you haven't heard of him, that's why, even if you live in New Jersey.
(Look, all I ever see is Nancy Franklin, and that's adequate to my needs.)
I assume you don't mean Aaron Sorkin, since his background is pretty completely covered in the piece. (He is also, of course, responsible for the line "You can't handle the truth," which it would be nice to put into the Do Not Use for Your Own Purposes Until 2106 box.)
Greg, you're looking at the wrong gun. The M102 weighs 1.6 tons. I will admit, when I saw the loadout, I thought, "They must mean it can transport one," (which of course it can), but in fact it's mounted as a cannon, presumably forward-firing. It carries about a hundred rounds, and seems to be meant for blowing up large things on the ground, though if I saw a big aircraft coming at me with an unpleasant look on its face, I might well shoot and write "target was in an advanced taxi condition" if there was some kind of dumb question afterward.
It is apparently supposed to be replaced by a breechloading 120mm mortar, though I'm not sure if we have one of those on the shelf (we have lots of the more usual sort).
A side note about Rumsfeld's Roughnecks: he promised us a Lean and Mean army. We don't feed them, we make them torture people, and look the other way when they kill unarmed civilians.
Mission . . . well, you know.
Bigger than Making Light?
Fox News please copy.
Greg: The new* OS is called Vista. As in, "Vista Watson, he dead."
Lizzy: The best-known illustrations for Treasure Island are by N. C. Wyeth. Aaaargh, I mean, aaar, they be my favoritest of all them pictures. Yers faithfully, Blind Pew.
*So nu?
Patrick, you may say that four times before needing another pig.
But don't worry, they'll make more. (Time to buy pork belly futures.)
The [AC-130] heat signature reduction components alone are a cause of consternation to aircraft mechanics and have become almost legendary among maintenance personnel for their inability to properly diffuse engine exhaust temperatures without warping or cracking. [from Wiki]
"Consternation." So it's the mechanics' fault that the add-on system doesn't work right and breaks the airplane?
All die. O the embarrassment.
"Important message for the King of Denmark. Sorry about the delay; had to wake up the Minister of Shriving Time to tell him he wasn't needed. Long story. Anyway, your two chaps, choir invisible, high-five dispatched per instructions. . . . Just a literally bleedin' minute 'ere, don't you people own a mop?"
--To Carry On or Not to Carry On (1962)
Susan: provided the Apple is in working order, I don't see why not.
And suddenly I'm thinking about pulling the IIc out of the drawer, hooking it up to the TV, and playing Seven Cities of Gold. (It was, and remains, a lovely design by one of the most brilliant designers the field ever had.)
But right now I have work to do. Fly, space monkeys, fly!
Kate: CORELDraw also hit the "X3" designation, and I'm assuming that someone at the company was superstitious about calling something "version 13." Or maybe they weren't, but worried that some of the customers might be. Hey, if it works for hotel floors . . . (The Marketing People, they live in a dimension not of sight and sound, but of Mind.)
Or maybe the new versions will give you mutant powers, like Resize Window and Select All Bezier Nodes.
One of my friends, long ago, said, "Working in COBOL is like trying to reason with a dead whale that's washed up on the beach."
And I'm pretty sure I still have my copies of Turbo Pascal and Turbo C++ around here. (I gave the Borland Sprint manuals to someone who needed them, but I'm sure the disks are still here.) It's not like I ever throw anything out, even the Apple IIc disks. And the Apple IIc. Someday I may just declare the kitchen a Museum of Computing History.
Lizzy:
You left out an airship, a whatever-that-guy's-name-was Trimotor, a Temporal Displacement Widget,* the Nautilus (the one with the sense of interior design), the C-57D, and a Mechanical Mole. The last one would have to be capable of reaching Symzonia/Pellucidar/Anyplace Down There That Isn't Real Hot and Preferably Supports Dinosaurs.
Of course, all those vehicles need to reach all their relevant fictional destinations. Singly or in combination.
Fortunately -- and I would imagine this was your point -- we can do that. We have the technology.
I like a fountain pen for initial development, going to larger hardware for implementation.
*Preferably as small as possible, as large ones are inevitably left in places that end up behind Great Big Bolted Doors or on the other side of a River of Molten Sugar. Not that that's bad for the story, as long as it does not become a plot, you know, device.
Sara: One imagines James Bond in Manhattan (well, one Bond or other, anyway), being handed a note telling him where to meet his contact:
SHUN LEE PALACE
"Someone must be having me on."
Kate:
"Today on Scrapheap Cha -- uh, sorry, Junkyard Wars, our teams have to convert one of these yellow Volkswagens into an armour . . . sorry again, armor-plated Careless Author Pursuit Vehicle. Once complete, the teams will take off across this course -- which you'll note is rather short on auctorial hiding places -- after either A. N. Wilson or Bevis Hillier, target to be chosen by lot, and no fair slipping a ringer into the draw box."
[Music: "Big Yellow Taxi"]
Oriana Fallaci has died. She was 76.
Guardian obit here.
If I'd had more to say, I would have put it on the front page, and I might yet, but as those of you who've followed her career may imagine, I'll have to do a bit of thinking and sorting out first.
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