For nearly forty years, I’ve been trying to find out the truth of something that happened to me—and I’m starting to realize I may never know that truth. Recently, I decided to pitch This American Life on the idea of doing a story on the incident, thinking they could either find out what really happened, or failing that might be interested in pulling together a themed episode on multiple people who have mysteries about their lives which may never be solved. And when I mentioned on social media that I’d done this, a few of you were intrigued, and wanted to know more about this mysterious event.

Since it’s unlikely This American Life will be interested, and since, who knows, perhaps one of you could solve this mystery, I figured, why not share it here?

This incident occurred in the mid to late ’70s, prior to November 2, 1978. I say this because that’s the date on which I began keeping an almost daily diary, and when I searched through my entries for a contemporaneous accounting from then until the day I left New York in 1985, I found nothing. I would surely have written about this, so it had to have happened earlier, probably in 1975 or 1976, when I would have been 20 or 21.

One afternoon, I was sitting in front of the McGraw-Hill building on Sixth Avenue with my back to a giant, gleaming triangle that tracks solstices and equinoxes. (If you live in New York, you’ll know exactly where I mean.) I often hung out on that spot, because my father was an Art Director for McGraw-Hill, and I’d wait there until it was time for us to have lunch, or for him to get off work. But on that day, something unusual happened. (more…)

I was reading the latest issue in my lifetime subscription to The Paris Review today—a gift subscription from my wife that’s been going on for more than 35 years (so I got that going for me, which is nice)—and because the interviews have always been my favorite part, I started by reading the first one, which is with Hilary Mantel, best known as the author of Wolf Hall.

One of the things she had to say about her approach to writing resonated with my own—

With historical fiction, the big thing is the constant check you keep on information. What have I told my readers? Of what I’ve told them, how much do I think they hang on to, at first reading? Have I told them too much, have I spoon-fed them? Or have I told them too little, mystified them? It’s not just historical fiction, of course, all fiction is like that. And if it’s a choice between spoon-feeding and mystification, I think choose mystification, because you always have to assume that your reader is at least as intelligent as you are, if not more so.

Between the two, I, too, choose mystification.

How’s that working for me?

Well … it’s working for me.

As to whether it’s working for anyone else … that’s a question which has yet to be fully answered.

I had such a great time at last year’s Awesome Con that I decided to do it all over again. So three weeks from tomorrow, on Saturday, May 30, I’ll be back at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. to pontificate at Awesome Con 2015.

I’ll be taking part in the following panels sponsored by the Museum of Science Fiction and the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office—

3D Printing: “Replicating” Success
11:30 a.m.
The idea of a machine making what you want, when you want it, is common in science fiction. From The Diamond Age’s matter compilers to Star Trek’s replicators, the future promises the perfect cup of Earl Grey without waiting to heat the water. Scientists working at the cutting-edge of 3D printing technology (a.k.a. additive manufacturing) will discuss the real future possibilities of this science fiction trope. Perhaps we are a long way off from printing an entire being like in The Fifth Element, but 3D printing of organs and tissues for transplant is already under development. Astronauts and soldiers might not be ordering their favorite tea, but field-printed meals ready to eat (MREs) customized to a warfighter’s nutritional needs by way of a wearable sensor is already on the horizon.

Nanotechnology: Fact from Fiction
4:45 p.m.
Could Tony Stark really take a bullet in the face and be protected by transparent graphene? Could a ship heal itself without Cylon organic resin? Could nanobots repair my broken leg or would that rob the Universe of energy? These are the types of questions scientists will answer during Nanotechnology – Fact from Fiction. An integral part of this panel is allowing the audience time to engage with the scientists. As such, each panelist will discuss the reality behind nanotechnology-specific pop culture references. Then the real fun begins. Audience members can share their thoughts, questions, and expectations about nanotechnology with the experts.

And in-between those two panels, you can find me on the exhibit floor, where I hope to track down a few old Marvel Comics Bullpen buddies who I haven’t caught up with in decades, such as Ron Wilson.

I looking to seeing (some of) you there!

The first—and last—comic book to which I ever subscribed was Fantastic Four.

It was my first because after all, it was the “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine”—wasn’t that what Stan Lee had been telling us on the cover almost from the beginning? And for several amazing years in the ’60s, that seemingly hyberbolic claim may not have been all that hyperbolic after all.

And it was my last because—have you ever seen a subscription copy of a comic book from the ’60s? If not, you might not realize how poorly they were treated. They were folded in half lengthwise and then wrapped in brown paper on which an address label was slapped. By the time copy arrived in the mail, that fold was an eternal crease, a condition from which any true comic book collector would recoil.

But if you’ve subscribed to a comic book during the past few decades, then you know that this destructive practice was eventually eliminated. Would you like to know when? (more…)

Today’s May 4th, which makes it Star Wars Day, but what’s uppermost in my mind isn’t that—instead I’ve been thinking about how this marks the second anniversary of the day I strapped a Fitbit Flex to my wrist. I’ve worn the exercise tracker continually 24/7 since then, except for when I’ve been recharging or forced to remove the device while passing through airport security.

I took note of where I stood on my one-year Fitbit anniversary, so I’ve been wondering what year two was going to look like. As it turns out, it ended up looking a lot like year one.

The first year, thanks to the gamification of my walking, I took 4,078,838 steps, which came out to 2,030.89 miles.

Now that the second year is over, I see I’m up at a total 8,186,353 steps and 4,076.00 miles. Which means that during year two, I took 4,107,515 steps and walked 2045.11 miles—which is nearly identical to year one!

The difference, however, is in the details. (more…)

I bought a copy of Harry Warner, Jr.’s 1969 history of science fiction fandom, All Our Yesterdays, during the early ’70s when I was first entering that fandom. I read it and loved it, but I haven’t reread it since.

So why am I rereading it now?

Amazingly, Warner himself—who won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer as a result of this book—answered that question in the second half of the last sentence to his Foreword:

Finally, I cling to a hope that today’s active and gafiated fans will find pleasure in reviewing the events in which they took part, and that the fans who came into the hobby recently will find in the book reason to take more philosophically their fannish troubles, through the discovery that we went through the same mishaps so many years ago.

Emphasis mine.

And that’s exactly why I’ve started rereading All Our Yesterdays. Because considering our own current “fannish troubles,” I thought I might find some solace there, and do what Warner suggests—take it more philosophically.

Either way … I’ll let you know.

April’s over, and though it brought plenty of those April showers, it seemed to bring fewer dreams than most months. In fact, I didn’t wake with a remembered dream until the sixth of the month, which is unusual for me. Guess that birthday trip to Copenhagen really wore me out!

In any case, during the rest of April, I shared over on Twitter the dream appearances of Bill Murray, George R. R. Martin, Frank Frazetta, Tracy Morgan, Al Williamson, David Letterman … and the Hulk!

Here they are, collected in one place so their surreality may perhaps start making sense.

APRIL 2015

I dreamt I was at a crowded Comic-Con hotel, and the manager asked me, “Are you happy?” My answer was so complicated I woke while giving it. Apr 30

I dreamt I rode through city streets on a lawnmower which unfortunately ran out of gas … so I had to push it the rest of the way home. Apr 29

I dreamt @shunn and @chavoen left me in charge of their dog for some reason, and it took the entire weekend for me to gain her trust. Apr 29

I dreamt our cabbie got in an accident and then expected US to pay for his damage. Much arguing ensued, the police were called, and I woke. Apr 28

I dreamt I found myself walking behind @GRRMspeaking and @KevinStandlee, realized they were chatting privately, and so let them go on alone. Apr 27

I dreamt my Mom was dating again, and my Dad (dead 6+ years IRL) tossed me a pair of paints so I’d be dressed appropriately to meet the guy. Apr 26

I dreamt I planned to swim to an island in the middle of the Hudson with a group of friends to protest … something. But I don’t know what. Apr 26

I dreamt I brought chocolate-covered mushrooms to @tinytempest, who (in the dream) I knew had eaten them before and loved them. And we ate. Apr 26

I dreamt my wife handed me an antique violin, apparently anticipating I’d know how to play it. I couldn’t, of course — so I woke instead! Apr 26

I dreamt I bumped into Stephen Jones at a con and discovered — he’d gone blond! And now he looked like a John Constantine doppelgänger. Apr 24 (more…)

Step One: Go back in time to 1959 and pick up a copy of Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #14.

Step Two: Drool over the prizes offered in the Charlton Giant Contest, especially the First Prize of a Buster Crabbe swimming pool—named after the Olympic gold medalist who later portrayed both Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. (more…)

Remember Brenda Starr’s cousin Abretha Breez, a woman mocked for being too large to fit through a kitchen door to get more cake? As you may recall, she had a crush on steam shovel operator Everett Diggin, which didn’t work out, since the guy had a crush on Brenda. Was Abretha able to find a soulmate, or was she destined to forever be held up as an example of a woman too overweight to ever be seen as desirable?

We seem to find our answer in Brenda Starr #9 (July 1949), though you never know—since I was unable to find anything but the covers to issues #7 and #8, there could have been answers there as well.

The lead story in this issue begins with Brenda and Abretha heading off to an auction at a Chinese antique shop, where Brenda wins two bookends for a buck. But something’s up with those bookends, because a latecomer offers Brenda $100 for them. She refuses, of course (or there wouldn’t be a story), so the man offers her $200! But Brenda turns him down again. And why would she refuse $200 in 1949, which is apparently the equivalent of $1,948.64 today?

“I’m a typical woman,” she says. “If anybody else wants it, I’m determined to keep it.”

Since we can read the guy’s thoughts, we know something’s up, because he gripes that “she’s walking off with a fortune and she doesn’t know.”

Brenda then leaves Abretha alone with the bookends because she wants to “run over to a couple of shops and see some of the new gowns.”

I’ll leave it to others to explicate the meaning of Brenda’s cliched behavior so far, because I’m more concerned with the treatment of Abretha—who I’m happy to say in this story now looks like more a human being rather than the caricature she was before. (more…)

If you were here to peruse the knick-knack shelves in my office, you’d eventually come across a bent key.

Why is it bent? Who bent it? What door does it no longer open?

I guess the title of this post gives away the answer to my last question. But as for the other two questions … (more…)