19 July 2015

Birthdays
Steven Anthony Lawrence b. 1990 (Buffy, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, My Favorite Martian)
Kaitlin Doubleday b. 1984 (Dragon Warriors, Witches of East End)
Jared Padalecki b. 1982 (Supernatural, Friday the 13th, House of Wax)
Mark Webber b. 1980 (Goodbye World)
Chiara Zanni b. 1978 (Riverworld, Smallville, Supernatural, Stargate: Atlantis, X-Men 2, The Immortal, NightMan)
Erin Cummings b. 1977 (The Astronaut Wives Club, Dollhouse, Charmed, Threshold, Star Trek: Enterprise)
Benedict Cumberbatch b. 1976 (Dr. Strange, The Hobbit, Star Trek Into Darkness)
Vinessa Shaw b. 1976 (Hocus Pocus)
Patricia Ja Lee b. 1975 (Power Rangers)
Bodhi Elfman b. 1969 (Touch, Charmed, Armageddon, Sliders, Godzilla, 3rd Rock from the Sun)
Nancy Carell b. 1966 (Seeking a Friend for the End of the World)
Anthony Edwards b. 1962 (Zero Hour, Pet Sematary II)
Campbell Scott b. 1961 (The Amazing Spider-Man, Final Days of Planet Earth, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Top of the Food Chain, The Love Letter)
Robbi Morgan b. 1961 (Friday the 13th)
Hideo Nakata b. 1961 (director, Ring [Japanese and American versions])
Terri Treas b. 1957 (Alien Nation [TV], Knight Rider)
K.A. Applegate b. 1956 (author, Animorphs, The One and Only Ivan)
Peter Barton b. 1956 (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, The Powers of Matthew Star)
Dan Hicks b. 1951 (Oz the Great and Powerful, Paranormal, Burbank, My Name is Bruce, Spider-Man 2, Wishmaster, Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero, Darkman, Evil Dead II)
Tom McLoughlin b. 1950 (writer, She-Wolf of London, They Came from Outer Space, Friday’s Cruse, Amazing Stories, Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI)
Richard Pini b. 1950 (writer, Elfquest)
Martin Stephens b. 1949 (The Witches, The Innocents, Village of the Damned)
George Dzundza b. 1945 (Stargate: SG-1, The Twilight Zone [1986], Faerie Tale Theatre, Salem’s Lot)
Tim McIntire b. 1944 died 15 April 1986 (A Boy and His Dog, The Invaders)
Priscilla Allen b. 1938 died 14 August 2008 (Total Recall)
Richard Jordan b. 1937 died 30 August 1993 (Tales from the Crypt, Solar Babies, Dune, Logan’s Run)
Priscilla Montgomery b. 1929 (The Wizard of Oz)
Arthur Rankin Jr. b 1924 died 30 January 2014 (director, The Wind in the Willows, The Last Unicorn, The Return of the King, The Hobbit, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea)
Pat Hingle b. 1924 died 3 January 2009 (Muppets from Space, Batman, The Shining [TV], Maximum Overdrive, Amazing Stories, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Invaders, Twilight Zone)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. In both 2013 and 2014, Benedict Cumberbatch was in the Picture Slot. While I still think he is in the sweet spot of his career, I instead went with a picture of Supernatural star Jared Padalecki. Mr. Padalecki has decided to talk about his battle with depression and the fan reaction, especially at Comic-Con this year, was very heartening. It's a positive thing that people are talking more about mental illness, so good on ya, Mr. Padalecki.

2. Spot the Canadian! Padalecki stars in a Canuck genre TV show, but he was born on this side of the border. The Canuck is Chiara Zanni, who has the almost always telling trifecta of Supernatural, Smallville and Stargate.

3. Nepotism and not. Nancy Carrell and Bodhi Elfman are not as well known as their respective spouses Steve and Jenna, but they have careers of their own and I don't count that as nepotism. The late Tim McIntire was son of the character actor John McIntire, so I would count that.

4. Does she count? Last year, an obit said the last living female Munchkin from The Wizard of Oz was gone. A little known fact is that several Munchkins were kids and not little people, so the "official" Munchkins are the members of the Singer Midget troupe. Priscilla Montgomery was one of the kids and she is still with us. (Betty Ann Bruno, a now retired reporter for KTVU in Oakland, is also an uncounted Munchkin.) Happy birthday to Miss Montgomery. Without her on the list, the Guy at the Door would have been 70 year old George Dzundza, which is way too young for that "honor" in my book.

Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.

Predictor: Robert A. Heinlein in the 1957 book The Door Into Summer

Prediction: A lot of little things from 2000 I missed going back to 1970, I had to go back to shaving! I once even caught a cold.

Reality: In this story, the hero goes into suspended animation to get from 1970 to 2000, then time travel to get back. So the end of shaving and the end of the common cold in the 20th Century. That's 0 for 2 for Bob this week.

Never to be Forgotten: Alex Rocco 1936-2015

Veteran character actor Alex Rocco, pictured here in probably his most iconic role as Moe Greene from The Godfather, has died at the age of 79. His biography mentions that he worked hard to get rid of his thick Boston accent, working with well known genre actors Leonard Nimoy and Jeff Corey. While he played gangsters in a lot of his roles, his genre performances include Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Small & Frye, The Entity, Slither and Batman.

Best wishes to the family and friends of Alex Rocco, from a fan. He is never to be forgotten.

 

Never to be Forgotten: Alan Kupperberg 1953-2015

Mark Evanier's webpage reports the death of comic book artist (and sometimes writer and letterer) Alan Kupperberg at the age of 62.  As I get older, my definition of "much too young" changes, but younger than my oldest brother has always been much too young in my book.

Kupperberg spent most of his career as a fill-in artist at Marvel, though he worked at other companies as well. The picture included here is the cover of the one-shot Obnoxio the Clown vs. The X-Men, a book where Kupperberg did everything, writing, doing the art and the lettering. That's a rare thing in the comic book industry, though cartoonists do it all the time.

Best wishes to the family and friends of Alan Kupperberg, from a fan. He is never to be forgotten.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

My old dependable source OMNI Future Almanac gets center stage tomorrow, a Monday tradition on the blog.
  
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

4 February 2015

 Birthdays
Bug Hall b. 1985 (Revolution, Arachnoquake, Charmed, The Munsters’ Scary Little Christmas)
Dina Rosenmeir b. 1976 (The Gene Generation, Daredevil)
Sahar Knite b. 1975 (Game of Thrones)
Vincent Walsh b. 1972 (Lost Girl, ReGenesis, Mutant X, Space Truckers)
Rob Corddry b. 1971 (Hot Tub Time Machine, Rapture-Palooza, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World)
Gabrielle Anwar b. 1970 (The Librarian: Return to King Solomon’s Mine, Mysterious Island, Flying Virus, Body Snatchers, Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader [1989], The Storyteller)
Brandy Ledford b. 1969 (Stargate, Andromeda, Smallville, The Invisible Man, Poltergeist: The Legacy, Welcome to Paradox, First Wave, Demolition Man)
Stig Henrik Hoff b. 1965 (The Thing [2011])
Jim O’Heir b. 1962 (Helen Keller vs Werewolves, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Star Trek: Voyager, 3rd Rock from the Sun)
John Gordon Sinclair b. 1962 (World War Z, Erik the Viking)
Jenette Goldstein b. 1960 (Star Trek: Generations, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Max Headroom, Aliens)
Adrienne King b. 1960 (Friday the 13th 1 & 2)
Mitchell Kosterman b. 1958 (Stargate SG-1, Smallville, Dark Angel, The X-Files, Sliders)
Michael Simkins b. 1958 (V for Vendetta)
Lisa Eichorn b. 1952 (About Time, Jericho, Swamp Thing [1992 TV], Moon 44)
Richard Lineback b. 1952 (Star Trek: Enterprise, The Stand, Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Max Headroom, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, Death Ray 2000)
Patrick Bergin b. 1951 (Berserker: Hell’s Warrior, Ella Enchanted, Smallville, Dracula [2002 TV], Amazons and Gladiators, Beneath Loch Ness, Merlin: The Return, The Lost World [1998], Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace, Frankenstein [1992 TV])
Michael Beck b. 1949 (Crusade, Babylon 5, Megaforce)
John Schuck b. 1940 (Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Voyager, Babylon 5, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek VI, Star Trek IV, Holmes and Yoyo)
George A. Romero b, 1940 (director, Survival of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead)
Gary Conway b. 1936 (Land of the Giants, I was a Teenage Frankenstein, The Viking Women and the Sea Serpent)
Collin Wilcox Paxton b. 1935 died 14 October 2009 (American Gothic, The Immortal [1970], Twilight Zone)
Jerry Adler b. 1929 (Quantum Leap)
Russell Hoban b. 1925 died 13 December 2011 (author, Riddley Walker)
Conrad Bain b. 1923 died 14 January 2013 (C.H.O.M.P.S., Dark Shadows [1969])
William Phipps b. 1922 (Tucker’s Witch, Time Express, Space Force, The Green Hornet, Batman, The Munsters, The Evil of Frankenstein, Twilight Zone, Men Into Space, The Snow Creature, The Twonky, Cat-Women of the Moon, War of the Worlds[1953], Invaders from Mars)
Ida Lupino b. 1918 died 3 August 1995 (The Food of the Gods, The Devil’s Rain, Batman, Twilight Zone)
William Talman b. 1915 died 30 August 1968 (The Invaders)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. In 2014, the Picture Slot was given to Jenette Goldstein as the body building Marine in Aliens, her first screen credit. This year it's Gary Conway from the Irwin Allen show Land of the Giants. Conway was also a bodybuilder and posed tastefully naked in some Body Beautiful magazines early in his career. Fans of Galaxy Quest will remember the cast members joked about how long it took before Tim Allen's character was not wearing a shirt on their adventure. I don't recall the people in charge of Land of the Giants figuring out how to get Conway naked from the waist up, but he was still in very good shape when the show was filmed. It should be noted that in his day, bodybuilders were trying to look like Jack LaLanne, not Arnold Schwarzenegger.It should also be noted that Conway was in The Viking Women and the Sea Serpent, a movie that got the MST3K treatment.

Were I not going for a bodybuilding theme, other good choices here would be a poster of one of George A. Romero's many zombie films or the cover of Russell Hoban's excellent book Riddley Walker.

2. Spot the Canadians, two hint edition. There are three actors on today's list holding Canadian citizenship. You would have to be a Diff'rent Strokes trivia fiend to know Conrad Bain was born north of the border, so I'm giving his name away for free. That leaves two Canucks to be spotted. The other hint is that we have a faux Canadian lurking as well, plenty of credits but born in the U.S.A.  See if you can find the real and reject the fake.

Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.

 Predictor: George Sutherland in his 1901 book Twentieth Century Inventions

Prediction: The asphalt and macadam tracks which are now being laid down along the sides of roads for the convenience of cyclists, are the significant forerunners of an improvement destined to produce a revolution in road traffic during the twentieth century. When automobiles have become very much more numerous, and local authorities find that the settlement of wealthy or comparatively well-to-do families in their neighborhoods may depend very largely upon the question whether light road-motor traffic may be conveniently conducted to and from the nearest city, an immense impetus will be administered to the reasonable efforts made for catering for the demand for tracks for the accommodation of automobiles, both private and public.

Reality: I found out about this book because H.G. Wells gave it a tip of the hat in Anticipations. Both Wells and Sutherland predicted more paved roads, but Wells thought it would take a long time and mostly be privately funded. Sutherland doesn't give a time frame, but he does speculate the development will be publicly funded. Paved roads are so ubiquitous now it's a little strange for me to realize how recent a development they were.

Never to be Forgotten: Bridget Turner 1939-2014. Some obituaries I hear about in the main news, but others come to me from a group of obit fans on Facebook. The British actress Bridget Turner died back in December, but I first saw her death notice only yesterday. She had a long career on the stage and on British TV, but only appeared in genre productions in this century, once on Doctor Who and in two movies based on Terry Pratchett's works The Hogfather and The Color of Magic. I didn't see any of her early work. The first production on TV I saw with her in it was the 1995 version of Pride and Predjudice, where she played one of Mr. Darcy's domestic servants, Mrs. Reynolds.

Best wishes to the family and friends of Bridget Turner, from a fan. She is never to be forgotten.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Another corker from that treasure trove of bad predictions, The Experts Speak.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
   

10 January 2015

 Birthdays
Emily Meade b. 1989 (The Leftovers, Fringe)
Alex Meraz b. 1985 (Twilight Saga)
Josh Ryan Evans b. 1980 died 5 August 2002 (Poltergeist: The Legacy)
Sarah Shahi b. 1980 (Supernatural)
Antonio Cupo b. 1978 (Supernatural, Taken, Andromeda, Dark Angel, The Immortal [2000 TV])
Kathrin Kuhnel b. 1988 (Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters)
Trini Alvarado b. 1967 (Fringe, The Frighteners)
Tony Gardner b. 1964 (Cockneys vs Zombies, Jekyll, My Parents are Aliens)
Julie Moran b. 1962 (Independence Day, Xena, Hard Time on Planet Earth)
Mark Venturini b. 1961 died 14 February 1996 (Space Rangers, Knight Rider, Return of the Living Dead, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning)
Evan Handler b. 1961 (Lost)
Janet Jones b. 1961 (The Beastmaster)
Fran Walsh b. 1959 (screenwriter, The Hobbit, King Kong [2005], Lord of the Rings, The Frighteners)
James Lapine b. 1949 (playwright, Into the Woods)
Lally Cadeau b. 1948 (ReGenesis, Twilight Zone [1989], Videodrome, Threshold [1981])
Teresa Graves b. 1948 died 10 October 2002 (Old Drac)
Jeff Jones b. 1944 died 19 May 2011 (artist)
Shelly Novack b. 1944 died 27 May 1978 (Kolchak: The Night Stalker)
William Sanderson b. 1944 (True Blood, Lost, Cyber Wars, The Low Budget Time Machine, Jumanji [TV], Babylon 5, The X-Files, Mann & Machine, Sometimes They Come Back, Mirror Mirror [1990], The Twilight Zone [1988], Knight Rider, Blade Runner)
Walter Hill b. 1942 (producer, Prometheus, Aliens vs. Predator, Perversions of Science, Bordello of Blood, W.E.I.R.D. World, Tales from the Crypt)
Sal Mineo b. 1939 died 12 February 1976 (Escape form the Planet of the Apes, The Immortal [1971 TV])
Douglas Hickox b. 1929 died 25 July 1988 (director, The Giant Behemoth, Theatre of Blood)
Bernard Lee b. 1908 died 16 January 1981 (Moonraker, A Christmas Carol [1977 TV], Beauty and the Beast [1976 TV], Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, The Champions, Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors)
Ray Bolger b. 1904 died 15 January 1987 (Battlestar Galactica, Babes in Toyland, The Wizard of Oz)
Francis X. Bushman b. 1883 died 23 August 1966 (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Batman, The Phantom Planet)

Notes on the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. The blog began in January 2013 and in the first few months, I often had very short birthday lists. Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson's collaborator, got the nod in 2013 and William Sanderson was featured in 2014. I'm of the opinion that Sanderson is the only actor on this list with an iconic genre role, so instead I honor James Lapine, playwright of Into the Woods. I use the poster from the original Broadway cast here. I did see the recent movie version and enjoyed it, but all good stills had the word "Disney" plastered on them, and I want to give that company as little free publicity as possible. 

2. Wait... she's dead? Doing the research each morning is an exercise in mortality. While all the people on the list born before World War I saw a fair number of birthdays, then we have the deceased starting with director Douglas Hickox, born in 1929.

Douglas Hickox: dead at 59
Sal Mineo: dead at 37
Shelly Novack: dead at 34
Teresa Graves: dead at 54
Mark Venturini: dead at 35
Josh Ryan Evans: dead at 22

Josh Ryan Evans was a little person actor. He died of heart failure at 22, very sad. The two names I knew here without prompting are Sal Mineo and Teresa Graves. I remembered that Mineo died young, but I never processed that Teresa Graves was gone. It's like fresh news, and bad fresh news at that.

3. The Museum of the Hard to Believe: The Canadian actor who was never on Supernatural. On a lighter note, we have two young actors who were on Supernatural, but neither was born in Canada. Our sole representative from The Great White North is Lally Cadeau, who worked with Canadian director David Cronenberg.

4. Hey... no Star Trek! If you look over at the labels, you'll see that Star Trek shows up more than a hundred times more than the second most popular label Whedonverse. But we do get days with no actors or writers from Star Trek celebrating birthdays, and today is one of those days.

5. MST3K. I didn't realize how long Francis X. Bushman worked. He was a huge star in the 1920s, but just a working actor once talkies came in. He was in The Phantom Planet, which Mike and the bots skewered in Season 9.

Many happy returns to all the living on the list, and to the dead, thanks for all the memories. Too many of you were gone too soon.

Predictor: Edwin Checkley, (1847-1911) physical culturalist, asked to predict the world of 1993 in honor of the 1893 Columbian Exhibition.

Prediction: It gives me great satisfaction to predict that a marked change will take place in the science of medicine. By 1993 doctors will prescribe no more than one third of the drugs they now think necessary. The true relation of the muscular system, and their combined influence on the nervous system, will become more fully and generally understood. The combined action of the patient's mind and muscles will be depended on to prevent, allay and cure disease, instead of drugs.

Reality: Umm... not so much. It was a little surprising to find a bodybuilder among the "prominent Americans" asked to predict the future in 1893, but there were a lot of health fads at the turn of the century, John Harvey Kellogg and his corn flakes among the best known. What Checkley couldn't foresee was how much better medicine would become in the 20th Century, since much of what was prescribed in his day is considered quackery today. There is more to his prediction, but it's mostly just nagging, not unlike Jack LaLanne was in modern times. To LaLanne's credit, he lived to be 95, while Checkley didn't make it to 65.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Our "new" regular Sunday predictor will be well known to regular readers of the blog and to science fiction fans in general. A hint? Sensible or ridiculous. (Spoiler: mostly ridiculous.)


Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

18 December 2014

 Birthdays
Bridgit Mendler b. 1992 (The Wizards of Waverly Place)
Tiger Darrow b. 1992 (Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D, Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams)
Ashley Benson b. 1989 (Time Warrior, Eastwick, Supernatural)
Katie Holmes b. 1978 (Batman Begins, Muppets from Space)
Josh Dallas b. 1981 (Once Upon a Time, Thor, Doctor Who)
Anna Walton b. 1980 (Mutant Chronicles, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Vampire Diary)
Baron Vaughn b. 1980 (Cloverfield)
Amy Grabow b. 1979 (Supernatural, Charmed)
Erin Simms b. 1976 (Eureka, Fringe)
James Payton b. 1975 (The Shadow of Bigfoot, Captain America: The First Avenger, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)
Julian Arahanga b. 1972 (The Matrix, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys)
Victoria Pratt b. 1970 (Dracano, Mongolian Death Worm, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep, House of the Dead 2, Mutant X, Cleopatra 2525, Xena)
Casper Van Dien b. 1968 (Star Raiders: The Adventures of Saber Raine, Sharktopus vs. Mermantula, Sleeping Beauty [2014], Mortal Kombat: Legacy, 500 MPH Storm, Dracula 3000, Sleepy Hollow [1999], The Time Shifters, The Omega Code, Modern Vampires, Starship Troopers, Beastmaster III: The Eye of Braxus)
Len J. Phillips b. 1966 (Naked Alien Massacre, Zombie #1)
Robson Green b. 1964 (Being Human, Rocket Man)
Brad Pitt b. 1963 (World War Z, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Being John Malkovich, Meet Joe Black, Twelve Monkeys, Interview with the Vampire, Cool World, Freddy’s Nightmares)
Allan Kayser b. 1963 (Night of the Creeps)
Lucas Donat b. 1962 (Damien: Omen II)
T.K. Carter b. 1956 (My Favorite Martian [1999], The Thing [1982])
Jeff Kober b. 1953 (The Walking Dead, Lost, Reaper, Supernatural, The Hills Have Eyes II, Buffy, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Voyager, Charmed, Seven Days, Poltergeist: The Legacy, Kindred: The Embraced, Tank Girl, Earth 2, The X Files, Alien Nation, Twilight Zone [1985], V)
Su Elliot b. 1950 (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Worst Witch)
Steven Spielberg b. 1946 (director, War of the Worlds, Minority Report, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Jurassic Park, Hook, Always, Amazing Stories, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind)
Alan Rudolph b. 1943 (director, Breakfast of Champions)
Keith Richards b. 1943 (Pirates of the Caribbean)
Michael Moorcock b. 1939 (writer, Elric of Melnibone)
Roger E. Mosley b. 1938 (RoboCop [TV], The Sixth Sense [1972])
Norma McCarty b. 1920 died 27 June 2014 (Plan 9 from Outer Space, the Adventures of Superman)
Ossie Davis b. 1917 died 4 February 2005 (Bubba Ho-Tep, Doctor Dolittle, The Android Affair, The Stand)
Alfred Bester b. 1913 died 30 September 1987 (won 1953 Hugo for The Demolished Man)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. Last year, it was Steven Spielberg. This year I considered it a four way race between Brad Pitt, Casper Van Dien, Oh That Creepy Guy Jeff Kober and Hugo winner Alfred Bester. Without question, Brad Pitt is an A-list movie star and Casper Van Dien isn't, but when it comes to iconic, Johnny Rico from Starship Troopers trumps the most iconic genre role in Pitt's career, or at least it does in my never humble opinion. So what about next year? Is it Pitt vs. Kober? Well, then I'd say Brad Pitt wins by a wide margin on pretty points. In Kober's defense, without him on the list, we wouldn't have any Star Trek, The X Files or Whedonverse in the labels.

2. Canadians, pre-spotted for your protection. There are three today, but not easy to spot. Erin Simms has only two credits, as does non-Canadian Amy Grabow. Victoria Pratt has a lot of credits, but not a lot in the usual Canadian genre TV shows. (Her C.V. did let me type Mongolian Death Worm, so there's that.) Len J. Phillips is Canadian, but he shows up in the INCREDIBLY CHEAP movies he produces himself. If you have never seen a Len J. Phillips production, then you cannot fairly say you have wasted your whole life.

3. The Guy at the Door. Regular readers know the drill. Everyone born before Roger E. Mosley is dead and everyone born after him is alive. He's best known for Magnum, P.I., but he had two roles on genre TV, so he's our Guy at the Door at only 76 years old.

Many happy returns to all the living on the list, most especially Roger E. Mosley, and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.

Movies released
Avatar released, 2009
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers released, 2002
 

Irwin Edman 1896-1954

Predictor: Irwin Edman, philosopher and professor at Columbia University, quoted in 1932, collected in the book The Experts Speak by Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky, published 1984

Prediction: By 1982, sex will have become much less a theme for either poetry or analysis. Much of the romanticism and all of the hypochondria on the subject will be over.

Reality: A few weeks back, The Experts Speak had a regular weekly spot, but when they quoted H.G. Wells' Anticipations, I found that text online and gave it the regular spot instead. Now that we have had our last Lee de Forest prediction, The Experts Speak will be our Thursday regular for the foreseeable future.

And now the prediction. Complete jackassery. There are many mathematicians who were also philosophers. I always like their math more than I like their philosophy. Edman was not a mathematician, so he had almost nothing going for him. One of the links I found on Google for him was to a page called Forgotten Books. Some of the books deserve to remain forgotten.


Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Yet another look into the future by H.G. Wells, working from the difficult year of 1902.


Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

18 August 2014

Birthdays
Max Charles b. 2003 (White Space, The Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2, True Blood)
Maia Mitchell b. 1993 (After the Dark)
Richard Harmon b. 1991 (Continuum, The 100, Fringe, Caprica, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Smallville, Flash Gordon [TV], Jeremiah)
Mika Boorem b. 1987 (Mighty Joe Young, Jack Frost, Sabrina, The Teenage Witch)
Mizuo Peck b. 1977 (Night at the Museum, Witchblade)
Malcolm-Jamal Warner b. 1970 (Jeremiah, Sliders)
Edward Norton b. 1969 (The Incredible Hulk)
Christian Slater b. 1969 (Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, Beyond the Stars)
Sarita Choudhury b. 1966 (Midnight’s Children, Lady in the Water)
Craig Bierko b. 1964 (The Thirteenth Floor, Red Dwarf [TV Movie])
Adam Storke b. 1962 (The Invisible Man [TV], Prey, Death Becomes Her, Lifepod)
Glenn Plummer b. 1961 (Monsters in the Woods, Vegas Vampires, Saw II, The Day After Tomorrow, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Strange Days, Beauty and the Beast [TV])
Madeleine Stowe b. 1958 (Impostor, Twelve Monkeys, The Amazing Spider-Man)
Dennis Leary b. 1957 (Amazing Spider-Man 1 and 2, Small Soldiers, Demolition Man)
Sergio Castellitto b. 1953 (The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian)
Patrick Swayze b. 1952 died 14 September 2009 (George and the Dragon, Donnie Darko, Tall Tale, Ghost, Amazing Stories)
Teri McMinn b. 1951 (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
Shirley Prestia b. 1947 died 6 October 2011 (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Charmed, Babylon 5, Species, ALF)
Martin Mull b. 1943 (Eastwick, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Lois & Clark, Wonder Woman)
Robert Redford b. 1936 (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Twilight Zone)
Roman Polanski b. 1933 (director, Rosemary’s Baby, The Fearless Vampire Killers)
Grant Williams b. 1931 died 28 July 1985 (Brain of Blood, The Outer Limits, The Munsters, The Monolith Monsters, The Incredible Shrinking Man)
Joan Taylor b. 1929 died 4 March 2012 (Men Into Space, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Earth vs. Flying Saucers)
Brian W. Aldiss b. 1925 (author, The Year Before Yesterday, Enigma, screenwriter, Brothers of the Head, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Frankenstein Unbound)
Shelley Winters b. 1920 died 14 January 2006 (Purple People Eater, Alice in Wonderland [1985], Pete’s Dragon, Batman) 

A few simple declarative statements about the Picture Slot choice.

1. Robert Redford is the biggest movie star on this list. There are other people I count as movie stars - Edward Norton, Christian Slater, Patrick Swayze, even Shelley Winters - but Redford is more famous than they are.

2. Some big stars have avoided genre films almost completely. Horror, sci-fi and fantasy were small budget affairs for the most part until Star Wars. Even then, fantasy and sci-fi films could be big hits without big stars in the cast. A lot of very popular sci-fi films did not make the actors in them household names,  the huge counterexample being Harrison Ford. Still, a lot of big names have clearly avoided sci-fi and fantasy, even now when the genre rules the roost in terms of big box office for films and popularity among TV shows. Redford is one of those people, but even he has succumbed now, appearing in the second Captain America movie.

3. While most sci-fi and fantasy of the 1950s and 1960s was considered slumming, The Twilight Zone was not. A long standing character actor like Burgess Meredith is the prototypical Twilight Zone protagonist, but a lot of young actors and actresses on their way to being stars had roles as well, and that includes Robert Redford pictured here.

4. My, oh my, by the names of Odin, Vishnu and the little baby Jebus, Robert Redford was so, so pretty when he was a young man. Regular readers can correctly assume from my reliance on fabulous babes in the Picture Slot my heterosexual tendencies, but I'm not blind to good looking guys, especially when the good looking is off the scale like this guy.

Many happy returns to the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.

Predictor: OMNI Future Almanac, published 1982

Prediction: With a combination of x-ray treatments and immune system enhancements, the age-old scourge of malaria will be as good as eradicated by the year 2000.

Reality: Umm, no. About half the world's population is still at risk and in 2012 alone, there were somewhere between 150 and 300 million cases with slightly more than a half a million deaths.

As with many diseases, the numbers are going down over time and the reduction in this century is encouraging, but we can hardly say it's eradicated.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Tomorrow will be the first prediction of our new Tuesday regular.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE! 

17 May 2014

Birthdays
Leven Ramblin b. 1990 (The Tomorrow People, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, The Hunger Games, The Wizards of Waverly Place, The Sarah Connor Chronicles)
Nikki Reed b. 1988 (Twilight)
Erin Richards b. 1986 (The Quiet Ones, Merlin, Being Human)
Matthew McGrory b. 1973 died 9 August 2005 (The Devil’s Rejects, Constantine Planet of the Pitts, Charmed, Big Fish, Men in Black II)
Richard Leacock b. 1968 (Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Ultra, Stargate SG-1, Lake Placid, The X-Files, Highlander, M.A.N.T.I.S.)
Paige Turco b. 1965 (The 100, American Gothic, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II and III)
Bruce Thomas b. 1961 (Kyle XY, Star Trek: Enterprise, Army of Darkness)
Whip Hubley b. 1957 (Charmed, Black Scorpion II: Aftershock, Babylon 5)
Bill Paxton b. 1955 (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Colony, Spy Kids, Mighty Joe Young, Apollo 13, Predator 2, Near Dark, Aliens, Weird Science, The Terminator)
Peter Hinwood b. 1946 (The Rocky Horror Picture Show)
Grace Zabriskie b. 1941 (The Grudge, Charmed, They Crawl, Armageddon, Galaxy of Terror)
Peter Gerety b. 1940 (War of the Worlds, K-PAX, Wolf)
Dennis Hopper b. 1936 died 29 May 2010 (Land of the Dead, The Crow: Wicked Prayer, Firestarter 2: Rekindled, Jason and the Argonauts [TV], Space Truckers, Witch Hunt, Waterworld, My Science Project, The Time Tunnel, Twilight Zone)

All right. There are two people who are movie stars on the list, Dennis Hopper and Bill Paxton, but you know what I never do? I never put up a picture of a guy just because he is smokin' hot.

Peter Hinwood was a bodybuilder. He was Rocky in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The role is iconic and he was smokin' hot.

Okay, now I've done that.

Many happy returns to the living on the list and to Matthew McGrory and Dennis Hopper, both gone too soon, thanks for all the memories.
 
 

Predictor: Elizabeth Chase Allen, poetess, answering a questionnaire in honor of the 1893 Columbian Exposition in 1893

Predictions: The mantelpiece of prophecy has not fallen upon my lately, so I instead will state what I hope the world will be in 1993.

That women may walk from house to house in city or country without danger of being waylaid and murdered by their "natural protectors".

That the persons who chance to witness a crime will not conceal and hush it up through fear of being put in jail as witnesses, while the culprit goes free on bail.

That the newspapers, which consider it witty to assert that the principal ambition of women is to be married, will be obliged to record on the same page half a dozen instances where women have been deliberately murdered for refusing.

That all mature, rational, intelligent and law-abiding persons will have an equal voice in forming and administering the laws which they must obey.

These are a few the things which I wish; I cannot say I hope for them, for I see no prospect or possibility of them - and I dare not undertake to prophesy.

Reality: Don't sugarcoat it, Liz. Tell us how you really feel.

I cut several of her requests from the list for brevity's sake, but it is interesting to note that the barbarous acts against women in places like India and Nigeria today are not that far removed from what America was like 120 years ago.

Looking one day... INTO THE FUTURE!

Another prediction about the this year's Atlantic hurricane season.  

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!