What, No Martians Up There?

Trivia:
Marvin the Martian's mission was to destroy Earth. Why? Because it blocked his view of Venus.
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What does the word Martian mean to you? Martians are the stuff of hundreds of science fiction stories, books, comics, movies and video games. But the excitement of Mars has warn off as of late as a muse for fiction writers. Knowing what we know now about the desolate, Martianless red planet, it sort of spoils the fun.

Here's a few of the more bizarre Martian plots from Wikipedia:

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) – Known as one of the worst movies ever made, as such it was made fun of on the TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000.

"Omnilingual" (1957) by H. Beam Piper. Short story in which archaeologists excavating the remains of a humanoid Martian civilization find an entire library, but lack a Rosetta Stone.

Red Planet (1949). Robert A. Heinlein, Young adult novel. Includes some very intelligent Martians similar to those mentioned in Stranger in a Strange Land, who help human colonists free themselves of tyrannical Earth authorities.

In The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut (1969), previously uninhabited Mars is populated by brainwashed transplants from Earth, leading to the invasion of Earth by the newly-created Martian army.

The Martian Way (1952) by Isaac Asimov. Arrogant Earth people are scornful of the Martian colonists, who barely survive by salvaging "space junk", yet their way of life is what fits the Martian colonists for further space exploration, reaching Saturn first and eventually (Asimov implies) leading the way to the stars.



A Rose for Ecclesiastes" (1963) by Roger Zelazny. One of the last stories of this type, describing an Earth poet's study of Martian language and literature. The story is deliberately written as an elegiac farewell to the old conception of Mars, complete with canals and an ancient, dying Martian race.

Intergalactic Laxative by Donovan

". . .oh the Intergalactic Laxative will get you from here to Mars."

Since NASA had such a successful mission with the Mars Landing this past week, I wanted to post something.

Not THAT Desperate Yet

Goosepath Haiku:

I will not eat Spam.
I don't care if it is cheap,
Things aren't that bad yet.

Memorial Day... to a Six Year Old

It's Memorial Day Weekend. I spent most of it happily outside planting peppers, planting flowers, and just soaking up as much sun as I could. Other than putting the flag out on the porch,I didn't give much thought to the meaning of the weekend, until a six year old from down the street who was visiting, asked me flat out: Why do we have a holiday this weekend?

Because it's Memorial Day.
Why?
Because we set aside a day to honor people who died during a war.
Why?
I explained that my grandfather faught in World War I.... (but then I realized he didn't die.... so it wasn't a good example.) Then I hurriedly told her it was good to remember people who go fight in wars even if they don't die.

I was waiting for another "Why?" but she looked at me like she really didn't get it.
Like... why do we honor people who go to war?

It occurred to me, she is only six. She doesn't even know what War is.

So I said to run along and go home. Her family was leaving to go to a picnic, and she needed to get cleaned up. "Have a good time!" I yelled. For her Memorial Day weekend will mean hotdogs and hamburgers, swingsets and cousins to play with, and
maybe some watermelon. It's best to just let her be a kid a while longer.

Brother Louie

I remember hearing this song on the radio all the time in the 1970s... and my dear Aunt Millie absolutely HATED it. She'd say "What do you young people see in this music? All they do is yell Looooieee,looooieeee,looieee!"

What's great are some of the COMMENTS I've read on this video. Someone said the singer looks like Ray Sharkey in a Wig, and another person admited they always thought it was a black chick singing this song. Too funny. It's so great to find stuff like this on YouTube.

Downloading at the Dentist's Office

You know the download countdown? The percentages that either appear as a disappearing bar or a succession of disappearing dots... whatever... showing you how much longer you have to wait until your download is complete? I wish they had something like that in the dentist's office. Right there on the ceiling or on the overhead lamp...

What I'm getting at is, yesterday I even told the assistant to talk. Just TALK TO ME, while she and the dentist are doing their thing in my mouth. The only thing worse then not knowing EXACTLY HOW LONG THIS IS GOING TO TAKE, is the actual drilling interspersed with deafening silence. She politely told me that she and the dentist concentrate on their work. I KNOW that... but would it hurt to give me a play by play to keep me at least informed on progress?

Wouldn't it be comforting, as you are fighting back the urge to swallow spit, and your cheek seems to be tearing open from the mirror handle pulling it back, to hear:"There! All done with drilling... now I'm putting in the silver stuff and packing it nicely....looks good.... only a few minutes left.... going great.... just a little picking around with this instrument for a few seconds... a little buffing...and--- a little heat lamp to seal it up...and... VOILA!"

Rainbow Stew- Cover of Merle's Song

--I looked for Merle Haggard, but couldn't find him. These guys... BCB Band(?)do a decent job with this.

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There's a big, brown cloud in the city,
And the countryside's a sin.
An' the price of life is too high to give up,
Gotta come down again.
When the world wide war is over and done,
And the dream of peace comes true.
We'll all be drinkin' free bubble-ubb,
Eatin' that rainbow stew.
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When they find out how to burn water,
And the gasoline car is gone.
When an airplane flies without any fuel,
And the satellite heats our home.
One of these days when the air clears up,
And the sun comes shinin' through.
We'll all be drinkin' free bubble-ubb,
An' eatin' that rainbow stew.

The Sunday Morning Muse, May 18, 2008

I really thought I'd get a new computer as soon as my income tax check came. But somehow I've delayed it. In the back of my head... I don't know--somewhere in my head then, I don't feel comfortable spending that much money at one time right now on something not absolutely necessary.

Maybe I've been watching too much news. Depressing stuff. And gas prices, grocery prices.... heck... ALL prices have gone up. But am I spending less at the store? Nope. Same amount.... just getting less.

Last night I saw a story where someone is making 3/4 gallon milk cartons. This way, people get almost a gallon of milk at close to the same price. Do they think we are really that stupid?

Of course, this actually is a blessing for me. I don't go through all that much milk. Much of it spoils by the time I need to use it, so I guess this works. But for actual families? Well.... they better get smaller glasses, too.

Maybe they'll make smaller M'nM packs next. Of course, I'll be spending twice as much because I'll need to buy two.

Maxwell's Silver Hammer-- Animated

Another Saturday afternoon on YouTube. This cracked me up. Some people are so creative.

By Chance, I'm Ordering This Book

I heard a great interview last night on Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. Author Leonard Mlodinow was on the show talking about The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives-- a book that came out this week. The point in the show when I tuned in, he was telling George how Roger Maris' record homerun season was probably just lucky. Knowing very little about baseball, I almost turned the dial, and I'm glad I didn't. The author launched into a very interesting... intelligent and just funny explanation -- using statistics--about how sometimes average players get lucky. A lot of what happens to us in life has to do with random chance.

( from Amazon.com)

“A wonderfully readable guide to how the mathematical laws of randomness
affect our lives.”--Stephen Hawking, author of A Brief History of Time

If you go to the website, you can read an exerpt from the book. It makes you think about the sheer acts of chance that put you where you are right now. Some people say there are no coinsedences. I have to think about that.